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Printed bvAKiiiL'. 



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y 



A COLLECTION 



OF THB 



POLITICAL WRITINGS 



or 



WILLIAM LEG GET T, 



SELECTED AND ARRANQED, 

WITH A PREFACE, 

B T 

THEODORE SEDGWICK, Jr 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 
VOL. I. 



NE W . Y O RK : 

TAYLOR & DO DD 

1840. 



t*** 

vt 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1839, 

BY W. C. BRYANT, 

In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New-York. 



H. LUmVlO, PRINTER, 

72, Vesey-street, N. Y. 



,2!L^. " _^^ 4^^ ^ 



V3 



PREFACE 



In preparing for the press a selection of the wri- 
tings of William Leggett it is proper to state the 
precise object which has been had in view. The 
wish of his friends is tore-piibhsh such of his A\T:i tings 
as will give a true picture of the mind and character of 
the man whom they so much lament ; and in dis- 
charging the duty confided to me I have endeavour- 
ed faitlifuUy to carry out this idea. To do this, 
however, it has not been thought necessary or desira- 
ble to revive and perpetuate the temporary controver- 
sies, in which the editor of a newspaper becomes 
almost inevitably entangled ; and therefore, although 
many of the pieces of this class were, at the time they 
appeared, among those which attracted the most at- 
tention, they have, with few exceptions, been excluded 
from these volumes. 

But beyond this I have omitted nothing on account 
of its peculiar character, and have re-published all 
those articles from the Plaindealer, and Evening 
Post while under the management of Mr. Leggett, 
which will give the most vivid idea of the vigour of his 
style, the originaUty of his mind, and the force and 
independence of his character. 



IV PREFACE. 

I have excluded nothing merely for the reason of 
its being- contrary to the prevailing or popular opinion, 
and on the subject of Slavery I have inserted many 
articles which go far beyond the tone of either of the 
great political parties of this day. 

It will not be supposed, however, that the Editor 
of tliis publication, or the friends who have sanction- 
ed it, adhere to the views expressed upon all the con- 
troverted topics which these pages contain. Many of 
those most attached to Mr. Leggett, and most devoted 
to the leading doctrines of his political faith, were at 
the same time the most opposed to the course pursued 
by him on particular subjects. But I have not thought 
myself at liberty to omit any arlicles for this reason. 
The effect of suppression would be to give a very 
imperfect idea of the mind and character of Mr. Leg- 
gett ; and to suppress them from any apprehension 
of injuring the sale or circulation of the work, would 
be a subserviency to popular prejudice, which the 
author, of all men, would have been the last to 
permit. 

- In this collection, therefore, I have endeavoured to 
embody such of his writings as will serve to convey a 
just idea of the ability and virtues of the author, and 
perhaps 1 may be permitted, in a few words, to point 
out those attributes of peculiar merit to which they 
may justly lay claim. 

The intellect of Mr. Leggett was of a very high 
order. His education was originally, in matters of 
mere accomplishment, defective ; but perhaps, in other 
respects, it could not have been better calculated to 
form the able and intrepid man, whose memory these 
pages are intended to perpetuate. 



PR,EFACE. V 

Nurtured in moderate circumstances, unspoiled 
and unpampered by the seductions of affluence, his 
life was one of widely diversified experience — 
first a woodsman in the wilds of the west — next 
wearing the uniform of the navy and breasting the 
waves under the constellation banner — soon the vic- 
tim of a harsh if not tyrannical commander, he threw 
up his commission, because his complaints were de- 
nied a hearing — then exposed to grievous hardships 
and to all the temptations of a great commercial 
metropolis — last a leading partisan editor — all 
these chances and chansres were well fitted to make 
a hardy, self-relying man — an intellectual athlete. 

But it is not to this education that Mr. Leggett owed 
his vigorous eloquence — his copious style — his close 
logic — his eminent powers of generahzation. These 
attributes incontestably distinguished him. His articles 
are often prolix, often perhaps defective in other re- 
spects of style ; but it must be reflected that there are 
no circumstances so unfavourable to composition as 
those under which an editor writes. The unavoid- 
able haste — the eternal interruptions and distractions 
— the impossibility of concentrating the mind on the 
subject — the necessity of repetition — the want of time 
to condense ; — all these are sufficient reasons why the 
Press has in this country no higher literary character. 
But all these difficulties were, in a great degree, sur- 
mounted by him ; and when it is remembered that 
the greater part of his articles were composed in the 
back room of a printing-office, amid the din of the press 
and the conversation of political loungers, it will be, I 
am persuaded, thought remarkable that he overcame 
them to so great an extent, I do not mean to over- 

1* 



VI PREFACE. 

rate the merit of his writings. I am aware that very 
great deduction is to be made for the excitement under 
which they were first read, when they were animated 
and quickened by a deep interest in the events with 
which they were connected — that great deduction is 
also to be made for the strong bias which a similarity 
of political sentiments creates ; but I am convinced 
that the admiration tliese writings excited is no delu- 
sion, no mere temporary feeling ; and that the reputa- 
tion which Mr. Leggett attained, during his short 
career as an editor, could not have been acquired un- 
less his writings had possessed merits of an abiding 
character. What, then, was that character? What 
are the claims which these productions present to a 
permanent place in our literature ? 

The foundation of his political system was an 
intense love of freedom. This, indeed, was the cor- 
ner-stone of his intellect and his feelings. He ab- 
solutely adored the abstract idea of liberty, and he 
would tolerate no shackles on her limbs. Liberty in 
faith — liberty in government — liberty in trade — lib- 
erty of action every way, — these were his fundamen- 
tal tenets — tliese the source alike of his excellencies 
and his defects. 

His love of freedom made him the warm and 
constant advocate of universal suffrage. He ever 
looked coldly if not with positive disinclination upon 
the different laws proposed for registering voters ; he 
could not endure the idea of any impediment upon the 
liberty of the citizen, and he preferred the evils which 
resulted from a want of registry to those which he 
feared might follow from a system that should impose 
any restraint or qualification upon the right of suffrage. 



PREFACE. Vll 

In the same light he looked upon every effort to 
exclude foreigners from the polls. His love of liberty 
was far too catholic and comprehensive to be bounded 
by any line of language or birth, and he could never 
tolerate the hostiUty often expressed to the adoption of 
foreigners into our political family. As to freedom of 
trade, he was equally consistent. He from the first 
warred against the tariff, and a federal bank. He 
was the leader of those who raised the standard 
against the monopoly system of incorporated banks ; 
and one of the first to insist upon the total disconnec- 
tion of government from its fiscal agents. In like 
manner, he reprobated all the state inspection laws, 
and one of his last productions in the Plaindealer is 
* that in which he advocates the idea of a free trade 
post office, or a system by which letters should be car- 
ried, as goods and passengers are now, by private esta- 
bhshments. In this respect the merits of his writings 
cannot be overrated ; he must ever be remembered as 
one of the most able and consistent disciples of that 
school of commercial freedom which is destined ulti- 
mately to bind the whole civilized world in bonds of 
peace and amity — of that school of political science 
whose end and aim are to simphfy and cheapen the 
operations of government. 

His reading was extremely copious, and his style 
of the most vigorous and manly order. On the topics 
which excited him he poured for! h a flood of reason- 
ing or it might be of denunciation and invective 
which forced the mind irresistibly along and aroused 
the most sluggish intellect. His language often rises 
to a commanding eloquence, and is always earnest, 
impressive and powerful. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

I have no desire or intention to pronounce a mere 
eulogy, an inconsiderate and sweeping panegyric. It 
would be I am convinced, the thing most repulsive to 
his own feelings. Mr. Leggett had unquestionably 
defects in his intellectual organization — he generalised 
too much — he pushed out his theories without a pro- 
per reference to the time and means necessary to per- 
fect them, and to persuade their adoption — and what 
was a greater defect for one who desired to lead the 
public mind on matters of daily and hourly import- 
ance, he was not sufficiently practical, nor did he listen 
with sufficient attention to the suggestions of practical 
men. His views when most correct, were frequently 
urged with a vehemence and impetuosity which pre- 
vented their adoption, and he often in this way dis- 
pleased and alienated moderate men of all parties. 

To this, which might perhaps be termed an imprac- 
ticability of conduct, are to be ascribed some singular 
inconsistencies of his views on various topics. He 
was an author and a consistent advocate of the right of 
property and of free trade. But he at all times opposed 
the introduction of an international copyright law. 
No one was a more zealous and unflinching enemy 
of mobs, but he with almost equal ardor opposed the 
passage of any law granting indemnity to their victims. 
He detested slavery in every shape, but he was totally 
hostile to any action of Congress on the question in the 
District of Columbia. This diminished his influence 
as a party leader, for which station indeed he was not 
fitted, except in periods of great excitement and vio- 
lence. 

He was certainly at times deficient in forbearance 
towards his opponents, and indulged in a violence of 



PREFACE. IX 

language wholly unjustifiable. But in extenuation 
it is to be recollected that no writer connected with 
the press, was so unfairly and indeed indecently 
attacked as he was during the time when he had 
charge of the Evening Post. It must not be for- 
gotten, that he was abused and calumniated in a 
manner almost unprecedented, even in the annals of 
the American press, and that his errors in this matter, 
were, to a great extent, errors of retaliation. 

Nothing could form a greater contrast with the 
vehemence of his writings, than the mildness and 
courtesy of his social life. I have repeatedly wit- 
nessed the surprise of those who knew him only 
through the columns of his paper, when accident 
brought them personally in contact with him. No 
one more enjoyed the pleasures of society — no one 
allowed less of the bitterness of political controversy to 
infuse itself into his social relations. His naval edu- 
cation, and " the grave and wrinkled purposes of his 
life," gave dignity to his manners, and he had a soft- 
ness and delicacy in his character which the acrimony 
of political strife had no effect to diminish. 

His style is often diffuse, and it may occasionally be 
charged with rhetorical extravagance, but to this a suf- 
ficient answer is perhaps to be found in the fact that 
these writings are newspaper articles ; written under 
the spur and excitement of the hour, and often with the 
intention and under the necessity of appeahng quite 
as much to the passions as the judgment. It is an 
unhappy obligation, but one apparently imposed upon 
the conductors of the press, that they are compelled to 
arouse the public mind and stimulate it to action ; 
and this is often to be done solely by infusing into the 



X PREFACE. 

system, not the wholesome mental food of truth, but 
the powerful and dangerous excitants of invective and 
declamation. 

Another and one of the highest attributes of 
the author of these works, was boldness — cour- 
age. He had no conception of what fear was ; 
physically, morally and intellectually, he had no idea 
of the meaning of the term. No personal danger 
could appal him ; no theory did he ever hesitate to 
adopt because it was scouted by the prevaihng opinion, 
and no cause did he ever fail to espouse because it was 
destitute of friends. When the mobs first attacked the 
abolitionists in the city of New- York, he had not made 
the subject of slavery one of very particular considera- 
tion, but he was the earliest to denounce the popular 
violence, and to call upon the municipal government 
to suppress it by the most vigorous and effective wea- 
pons. The same course he pursued in regard to the 
Bank. The vehemence of his attacks upon that in- 
stitution brought him into direct and frequent collision 
with members of the mercantile classes, but never was 
he deterred from this path by any apprehension of in- 
jury to his interests. The course pursued by the 
paper (the Evening Post,) during the crisis of 1S33 
and 1834, was extremely injurious to the pecuniary 
affairs of that journal which had previously, by its 
opposition to the tariff, made itself to some extent a 
favourite of the commercial community. 

This same courage taking what is perhaps the 
• higher shape of fortitude, showed itself in a manner 
equally remarkable in his private life. Amid the re- 
verses of fortune, when harrassed by pecuniary em- 
barrassments — durins^ the tortures of a disease which 



PREFACE. XI 

tore away his life piece-meal, he ever maintained the 
same manly and unaltered front — the same cheerful- 
ness of disposition — the same dignity of conduct. No 
humiliating solicitation — no weak complaint for a 
moment escaped him. 

But the intellectual character of Mr. Leggett, mark- 
ed as it was, was far inferior in excellence to his moral 
attributes. It is to these he owes the respect and afifec- 
tion in which his memory is held — it is to these that 
the influence his pen acquired during his life is chiefly 
attributable. 

At the same time it should be said that it is difficult 
to distinguish between his intellect and his character. 
They both derived force and support from each other, 
and it is not easy to draw any dividing line. 
There is nothing of that incongruity which history 
exhibits in some of the greatest men upon her page, 
where extraordinary mental power has been unsup- 
ported by moral energy. 

His great desire on all the questions which agitated 
the country appeared to be the attainment and esta- 
blishment of truth. The vehemence of his tempera- 
ment and the force of his original impressions often 
had an obscuring tendency upon his mind. But 
against these he was forever striving. No one fami- 
liar with him but must have perceived the progress 
his mind was continually making, and the manly in- 
dependence with which, when once convinced of an 
error, he denounced and cast it off. 

Truth was his first love and his last — the affec- 
tion of his life. His most favourite work was, I think, 
Milton's Areopagitica, and the magnificent description 
of Truth which it contains was constantly on his lips. 



XU PREFACE. 

Equally remarkable with this, was his superiority 
to all selfish considerations. He was doubtless some- 
times misled by his passions and his prejudices — never 
by his interest. No personal considerations could 
weigh with him a moment, when set in opposition 
to what his deliberate judgment convinced him was 
the cause of truth. Nothing can more satisfactorily 
prove this than his conduct on the abolition question. 
The first time that this matter distinctly presented it- 
self, was in the summer of the year 1835. The 
administration was then in its palmiest days. The 
contested elections of 1834 had terminated success- 
fully. The attack of the President upon the Bank, 
had been sustained by the state of New- York, and to 
appearance the government had established itself 
in an impregnable position. At this time Mr. Leggett 
was the sole conductor of the Evening Post, the lead- 
ing, if not the only administration organ in the city of 
New- York. He had edited that journal during the 
warmest part of the conflict, and on every ground he 
had a right to demand and expect the support of the 
party in power. 

At that moment Mr. Kendall, one of the most promi- 
nent members of the government, issued his well- 
known letters to the postmasters at Charleston and 
New- York, in which he justified, to a certain extent, 
the conduct of those officers who had stopped the mails 
containing what he termed, the " incendiary, inflam- 
matory and insurrectionary " manifestoes of the abo- 
litionists. 

That party at this time, was a small and un- 
popular sect. It is always painful to utter a sylla- 
ble detracting from the merit of persons unques- 



PREFACE. Xlll 

tionably animated by the impulse of a high moral 
■principle — more especially of men combating with 
the baleful institution of slavery. But the truth should 
at all times have precedence. Wisdom of conduct 
is as necessary as integrity of purpose. The unpopu- 
larity of the abolitionists was not wholly without 
cause. They had done injury to the progressive 
cause of freedom, by a violence of denunciation 
which the good sense of the country pronounced un- 
just and dangerous. Their proposed measures were 
not sufficiently distinct to be intelligible to the people ; 
and their leading organs had not manifested a proper 
cient deference either for the great charter of the union 
or for that spirit of concession and harmony upon 
which our political existence depends, and which forms 
the corner-stone of the Constitution itself. It is how- 
ever with the fact that we are heie principally con- 
cerned. But a few months before, they had been the 
victims of mob-law in New- York, and they were pre- 
eminently unpopular with the commercial classes of 
the north, whose interests had taken the alarm, and 
who had enrolled under the dark banner of the detes- 
table institution. Thus disliked by their immediate 
neighbours, they were absolutely abhorrent to the peo- 
ple of the South. They in fact stood alone, a small 
and uninfluential sect, professing ultra and impracti- 
cable doctrines, wiihout power or support. In this 
matter of the post-office law, they stood unsustained, 
except by justice and freedom. 

But this was enough for Mr. Leggett — that an 

unjust and unconstitutional power was attempted to be 

exerted against them was enough for him. Contrary 

to the urgent solicitations of many of his personal 

Vol. 1—2 



XIV P R E P A C E . 

friends — against the vehement representations of most 
of his pohtical supporters, and particularly in contempt 
of all consideration of interest, he declared war against 
the doctrines of the administration. He grappled, 
without fear or hesitation, with the Posmaster Gen- 
eral himself, and in terms ef eloquent reprobation de- 
nounced and derided this new censorship of the press. 

This conduct can be ascribed to no cause whatever 
but his love of truth and his utter superiority to sordid 
motives, and from the moment he adopted his line of 
proceeding, he steadfastly persevered in it. No con- 
siderations moved him. The administration organ 
of the state denounced him. The mouth-piece of the 
government excluded him from the party pale, but 
these things he heeded no more than the blasts of the 
winds : or if they produced any effect at all, it was to 
arouse him to a more vehement and more unspar- 
ing opposition of the measures of the government. 
So far as individuals and motives were concerned, he 
may have been carried too far by the violence of 
his temperament; but we can scarce pay sufficient 
honour to the boldness, the independence and the inte- 
grity of his conduct. 

This same line of action he 'pursued until he was 
prostrated by illness in the fall of 1835, and obliged to 
abandon the Evening Post. 

He established the Plaindealer in the fall of 1836. 
The first number was published in December of that 
year, and the last in September, 1837. 

It is in this periodical that his best pieces are to be 
found ; and it is from this that I have comparatively 
made the largest selections. 

The paper was established originally as a demo- 



PREFACE. XV 

cratic paper ; but the boldest attacks upon the course 
pursued by the government towards the abolitionists 
are to be found in its columns. While at the same 
time, there is no more vigorous support of the Sub- 
Treasury scheme than its pages contain. 

His mind was too sagacious not to perceive that the 
adoption of this measure must inevitably lead to the 
great desideratum of American legislation — an ad valo- 
rem tariff, and a revenue reduced to the actual expen- 
ses of the government. 

In connection with the subject of Abolition, I have re- 
printed his article upon Mr. Yan Buren's Message of 
1836 ; not that I think it just, but because it is oneof the 
most conclusive proofs of Mr. Leggett's independence. 
Abolition of slavery, in the District of Cohimbia, is envi- 
roned by difficulty, and the President should not have 
been charged with a want of courage or honesty, with- 
out more conclusive proof than the Message itself af- 
forded. I have also republished this article for another 
reason, to which, in giving increased publicity and per- 
manence to so severe an invective against the Presi- 
dent, it is right to call the attention of the reader. 
There is no better evidence of the superiority of Mr. 
Yan Buren to personal resentment, and it furnishes in- 
deed the strongest argument in favour of the chief ma- 
gistrate on the subject of the paper in question. He 
eould scarcely within two years have appointed Mr. 
Leggett to the Guatemala mission, at a time, too, when 
that gentleman, broken down by illness, was without 
influence or power, unless he had been conscious that 
the attack was unfounded. It is impossible that news- 
paper articles can be always correct. The merit of 
Mr.. Leggett's writings is that they were always honest. 



XVI PREFACE. 

The Plaindealer also contains some articles 
on a subject which must ultimately engage the atten- 
tion of the American people — that of direct taxation. 
Mr. Leggett has ably put forth the leading argu- 
ments in favour of this, the only fair, uniform, and 
democratic mode of raising funds for the support of 
the government. It is not one of the least proofs of 
his far-siglited views, and the enlarged and philosophi- 
cal tone of his legislative theories. 

Such is a very brief sketch of the character of the 
author of the writings contained in these volumes. It 
is necessarily imperfect. The reader has the opportu- 
nity of completing or correcting it from his own 
observation. No man's personal qualities were ever 
more deeply impressed upon his works. 

The death of Mr. Leggett is deplored with a regret 
that arises as well from public as private considerations. 
We grieve for the loss of an accomplished man of 
warm attachments, ardently devoted to his friends, and 
ready to make any sacrifice for them. But if possible 
we still more deeply lament the death of an eloquent 
and independent politician, thoroughly imbued with 
the cardinal principles of Liberty — of one with no 
superior, and scarcely a rival in his vocation, who, 
whatever his faults, had merits that a thousandfold 
redeemed them ; his richly stored intellect — his vigor- 
ous eloquence — his earnest devotion to truth— his 
incapability of fear — his superiority to all selfish views, 
are forever embalmed in our memory. 

Most especially do his friends deplore the time and 
circumstances of his death. Life appeared to be 
opening brightly, and the clouds which had hung 
around him seemed on the point of dispersing. 



PREFACE. XVll 

Every year was softening his prejudices and calm- 
ing his passions. Every year was enlarging his cha- 
rities and widening the bounds of his UberaUty. Had 
a more genial clime invigorated his constitution, and 
enabled him to return to his labours, a brilUant and 
honourable future might have certainly been predicted 
of him. He would not have left a name only as 
the conductor of a periodical press — he would not 
merely have left these transient and fleeting memo- 
rials of his ability and rectitude. It is not the sug- 
gestion of a too fond affection, but the voice of a calm 
judgment which declares that whatever public career 
he had pursued he must have raised to his memory 
an unperishable monument, and that as no name is 
now dearer to his friends, so few could then have been 
more honourably associated with the history of his 
country than that of William Leggett. 



A COLLECTION 



OK THB 



POLITICAL WRITINGS 



OP 



WILLIAM LEGGETT 



BANK OF UNITED STATES. 

[From the Evening Post, March, 1834 ] 
In answer to the many objections which are urged 
with great force of argument against the United States 
Bank, and against any great national institution of a 
similar character, there is little put forth in its defence, 
beyond mere naked allegation. One of the assertions, 
however, which seems to be most relied upon by the advo- 
cates of the Bank, is that it has exercised a most benefi- 
cial power in regulating the currency of the country. 
Indeed, the power which it was supposed it would possess 
to regulate the currency, furnished one of the chief 
grounds of the support yielded to the original proposition 
to establish a United States Bank, and the same topic 
has occupied a prominent place in every subsequent dis- 
cussion of the Bank question in Congress. It is main- 
tained, in favour of the present institution, that it not 
merely possesses that power, but that it has exerted in it 
the most prudent and salutary manner. This is made 



20 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the theme of many high-wrought panegyrics. It is 
triumphantly put forth by the journals in the interest of 
the Bank ; it drops from the lips of every Bank declaimer 
at poUtical meetings, and is asserted and re-asserted by 
all the orators and editors of the Bank party, with a con- 
fidence which should belong only to truth. Many per- 
sons, indeed, who are strongly opposed to the United 
States Bank on moral grounds ; who view with dismay 
its prodigious means of corruption ; and shudder with 
abhorrence at the free and audacious use it has made of 
those means ; yet accede to it the praise of having at 
least answered one great purpose of its creation — namely, 
the regulation of the currency of the United States. 

It is to be feared that men in general have not very 
precise notions of what constitutes a regulation of the 
currency. If the meaning of this phrase is to be limited 
to the mere sustaining of the credit of the Bank at such 
a point, that its notes shall always stand at the par value 
of silver, then indeed must it be admitted that the United 
States Bank has, for the greater part of the time per- 
formed its functions in that respect. Yet no praise is to 
be acceded to it on that score ; since such an effect must 
naturally and almost inevitably flow from the self-imposed 
obligation on the government to receive its notes at their 
nominal amount, at all places, in payment of debts due 
to the United States. There is not a bank in the coun- 
try, accredited and endorsed by the Government to an 
equal extent, that would not as certainly maintain its pa- 
per on a par with the precious metals. Indeed, most of 
the well-conducted institutions in the Atlantic cities, with- 
out the advantage of such countenance from the Gov- 
ernment, have preserved their paper in equal credit ; or, 
in other words, have been equally successful in regula- 
ting the currency^ so far as the term implies the affording 
of a convertible paper substitute for money, which shall 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 21 

pass from hand to hand as the full equivalent of silver 
coin. The doing of this certainly constitutes an im- 
portant branch of the regulation of the currency ; but 
there is another and more important branch, and in this 
the United States Bank has totally and most signally 
failed. 

What is regulating the currency ? It is the furnish- 
ing of a medium of circulation, either metalic or con- 
vertible at par, equal in amount to the real business of the 
country, as measured by the amount of its exports and 
the amount of actual capital employed in commercial 
business. It is the furnishing of that amount of circula- 
tion, which is actually absorbed by the commercial 
transactions of the country — by those transactions which 
rest on the basis of the exchange continually going on 
of the commodities of one country for those of another. 
When bank issues are limited within this circle, the notes 
of the bank in circulation are founded on the security 
of the notes of merchants in possession of the bank, and 
the notes of the merchants rest on the basis of goods 
actually purchased, which are finally to be paid for with 
the products of the soil or other articles of export. The 
maintaining of the circulation at this point would, in the 
strict and proper sense of the word, be regulating the 
currency. It would be supplying the channels of busi- 
ness to the degree requisite to facilitate the operations of 
commerce, without causing those operations to be unduly 
extended at one time, and unduly contracted at another. 
It would be causing the stream of credit to glide in an 
equal and uniform current, never stagnating, and never 
overflowing its boundaries. 

When bank circulation exceeds this measure, an in- 
evitable derangement of the currency takes place. The 
par of value between the paper representatives of money 
and money itself may still be maintained ; but prices are 



22 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

raised, and raised unequally, and the dollar no longer 
accurately performs its office as a measure of value. The 
effects of the expansion of the currency are first seen in 
the rise of the prices of foreign fabrics. This leads to 
excessive importation on the part of the competitors 
anxious to avail themselves of the advance. Goods are 
purchased from abroad to a much larger amount than the 
exports of the country will liquidate, and a balance of 
debt is thus created. The payment of this balance drains 
the country of specie. The bank, finding its paper re- 
turn upon it in demand for coin, is obliged suddenly, in 
self-defence, to curtail its issues. The consequence of 
this curtailment is a fall of prices. Those who had 
ordered goods in expectation of deriving the advantage 
of the high prices, are obliged to sell at a sacrifice, and 
are fortunate if they can dispose of their commodities at 
all. Those who had been deluded, by the fatal facility 
of getting bank favours, into extending themselves be- 
yond the limits of that fair and prudent credit to which 
their actual capital entitled them, must necessarily be 
unable to meet the shock of a sudden withdrawal of the 
quicksand basis on which their business rested, and are 
thus compelled to become bankrupts. A state of general 
calamity succeeds— most severe in the commercial cities, 
and measured in all places by a rule of inverse ratio to 
the excess of the preceding apparent prosperity. These 
sudden expansions and contractions of the currency have 
happened too frequently in this country, and have been 
followed by effects of too disastrous a nature, for any 
reader to be ignorant of them. 

Has the United States Bank never caused distress of 
this kind 1 Has it never caused the amount of circula- 
ting medium to fluctuate ? Has it never stimulated 
business into unhealthy activity at one time, and with, 
held its proper aliment at another 1 Has it never poured 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 23 

out a sudden flood of paper money, causing the wheels 
of commerce to revolve with harmful rapidity, and then 
as suddenly withdrawn the supply, till the channels were 
empty, and every branch of business languished through- 
out the land 1 There are few of our readers who cannot, 
of their own knowledge, answer these questions in the 
affirmative. 

For the two or three years preceding the extensive and 
heavy calamities of 1819, the United States Bank, in- 
stead of regulating the currency, poured out its issues at 
such a lavish rate that trade and speculation were excited 
in a preternatural manner. But the inevitable conse- 
quences of over issues did not fail to happen in that case. 
A large balance of debt was created in Europe, and to 
pay that debt our metalic medium was sent away from 
the country. The land was soon nearly exhausted of 
specie, and still the debt remained unliquidated. The 
bank, in order to bring business to an equipoise again, ex- 
changed a part of its funded debt for specie in Europe, 
and purchased a large amount of coin in the West Indies 
and other places. But it still continued to make loans 
to a larger degree than the actual business of the coun- 
try, as measured by the amount of its exports, required, 
and its purchase was therefore a most ineffectual and 
childish scheme. It was but dragging a supply of water 
with much toil and expense, from the lake of the valley 
to the summit of an eminence, in the vain hope that, 
discharged there, it would continue on the height and not 
rush down the declivity, to mix again with the waters of 
the lake. The specie, purchased at high rates in foreign 
countries, was no sooner brought to our own, and lodged 
in the vaults of the bank, than it was immediately drawn 
thence again, by the necessity of redeeming the notes 
which poured in upon it in a constant stream in demand 
for silver. In one year, 1818, upwards of fifteen 



24 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

millions of dollars were exported from the country, and 
still the debts incurred by the mad spirit of overtrading 
were not liquidated. The bank itself was now on the 
very verge of bankruptcy. At the close of its business 
on the 12th of April, 1819, the whole amount of money in 
its vaults was only 71,522 dollars, and it at the same time 
owed to the city banks a clear balance of 196,418 dollars, 
or an excess over its means of payment of nearly 125,000 
dollars. A depreciation of its credit was one of the con- 
sequences which had flowed from this state of things, and 
the notes of the United States Bank — the boasted insti- 
tution which claims to have regulated the currency of 
this countrj— fell ten per cent, below the par value of 
silver. 

But the greatest evil was yet behind. The Bank was 
at length compelled, by the situation in which the rash- 
ness of its managers had involved it, to commence a rapid 
curtailment of discounts. An immediate reduction took 
place of two millions in Philadelphia, two millions in 
Baltimore, nearly a million in Richmond, and half a 
million in Norfolk. This sudden withdrawal of the 
means of business was, of itself, a heavy calamity to 
those cities ; but the system of curtailment was perse- 
vered in, until the foundation of a great part of the 
commercial transactions of the United States, and of the 
speculations in land, in internal improvement, and other 
adventures, which the facility of getting money had in- 
duced men to hazard, was withdrawn, and the whole 
fabric fell to the ground, burying beneath vast numbers 
of unfortunate persons, and scattering ruin and dismay 
throughout the Union. 

The same scenes, only to a greater extent, and with 
more deplorable circumstances, were acted over in 1825, 
There are few inhabitants of this city who can have 
forgotten the extensive failures, both of individuals and 



WILLIAMLEGGETT. 25 

corporate institutions, which marked that period. There 
are many yet pining in comfortless poverty whose dis- 
tress was brought upon them by the revulsions of that 
disastrous year — many who were suddenly cast down 
from affluence to want — many who saw their all sHp 
from their grasp and melt away, who had thought 
that they held it by securities as firm as the eternal 

hills. 

But not to dwell upon events the recollection of which 
time may have begun to efface from many minds, let us 
but cast a glance at the manner in which the United 
States Bank regulated the currency in 1830, when, in the 
short period of a twelvemonth it extended its accommo- 
dations from forty to seventy millions of dollars. This 
enormous expansion, entirely uncalled for by any pecu- 
liar circumstance in the business condition of the coun- 
try, was followed by the invariable consequences of an 
inflation of the currency. Goods and stocks rose, specu- 
lation was excited, a great number of extensive enter- 
prises were undertaken, canals were laid out, rail-roads 
projected, and the whole business of the country was 
stimulated into unnatural and unsalutary activity. The 
necessary result of the spirit of speculation thus awakened 
was the purchase of more goods abroad than the com- 
modities of the country would pay for. Hence vast sums 
of specie soon began to leave the United States ; scarcely 
a packet ship sailed from our wharves that did not carry 
out to England and France a large sum of money in 
sold and silver ; and it is estimated that in 1831-32 the 
s^ ecie drawn from the country did not fall short of twenty 
milUons of dollars. The Bank of the United States, 
failing to accomplish the bad design for which it had thus 
flooded the country with its paper, now began to try the 
effects of a contrary system, and resorted to coercion. 

Vol. I.— 3 



26 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

A redaction of its issues must inevitably have taken 
place in the nature of things, nor could all the means and 
all the credit of the Bank have removed the evil day to 
a very distant period. But it had it completely within 
its power to effect its curtailment by easy degrees, and to 
bring back business into its proper channels by operations 
that would have been attended with little general distress. 
But this was no part of its plan. Its object was to wring 
from the sufferings of the people their assent to the per- 
petuation of its existence. Its curtailments were there- 
fore rapid and sudden, and so managed as to throw the 
greater part of the burden on those commercial places 
where there was the greatest need of lenity and forbear- 
ance. The distress and dismay thus occasioned, were 
acfo-ravated by the rumours and inventions of hired 
presses, instructed to increase the panic by all the means 
in their power. Of the deplorable effects produced by 
this course, the traces are 3'et too recent to require that 
we should enter into any particulars. 

The Bank has not yet exhausted its full power of 
mischief. Since its creation to the present hour, instead 
of regulating the currency, it has caused a continual 
fluctuation ; but it is capable of doing greater injury 
than it has yet effected. It is perfectly within its power 
to cause a variation of prices to the extent of twenty-five 
per cent, every ninety days, by alternate expansions and 
contractions of its issues. It is in its power, in the short 
period that is yet to elapse before its charter expires, so to 
embarrass the currency, so to limit the amount of circu- 
lating medium, so to impair commercial confidence, and 
shake the entire basis of mercantile credit, as to produce 
throughout the whole land a scene of the most poignant 
pecuniary distress — a scene compared with which the 
dark days of 1819 and 1825, and those through which 



WILLIAM LEG GET T. 27 

we have just passed, shall seem bright and prosperous. 
And there are indications that the Bank will do this. 
There are signs and portents in the heavens which tell 
of a coming tempest. There are omens which foreshow 
that this mighty and wicked corporation means to use to. 
the uttermost its whole machinery of coercion, to wring 
from the groaning land a hard contest to the renewal of 
its existence. We trust the People will bear stiffly up 
under the infliction. We trust they will breast the storm 
with determined spirits. We trust they will endure the 
torture, without yielding to a measure which would de- 
stroy the best interests of their country, and make them 
and their children slaves forever. 

Regulation of the currency ! What a claim to set 
up for the United States Bank ! It has done the very 
reverse : it has destroyed the equal flow and steady worth 
of the currency : it has broken up the measure of value : 
it has kept the circulating medium in a state of continual 
fluctuation, making the dollar to-day worth a dollar and 
a half, and to-morrow not worth a half a dollar. Besides 
the three great periods of sudden excess and rapid cur- 
tailment, its whole career has been one series of experi- 
ments, more or less general, of inflation and exhaustion 
of the currency. And this is the institution, which now 
comes forward, and claims to be re-chartered, on the 
ground of having well performed the great offices for 
which it was created. It has failed in all its great ends. 
In its chief purpose, as a fiscal agent and assistant of the 
Government, one on which it might at all times securely 
rely, it has wholly failed. We have seen it interferino- 
in the national politics, and endeavouring to rule the 
suffrages of the people, first by bribery and afterwards 
by compulsion. We have seen it place itself in open 
defiance to the Executive, and rank him in its official 



28 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

papers, with counterfeiters and robbers. We have seen 
it endeavouring to thwart the measures of his administra- 
tion ; collude with foreign creditors of the Government 
to defeat the avowed objects of the Treasury ; refuse to 
give up the national funds at the commands of the com- 
petent authority ; and finally turn a committee of con- 
gress with contumely from its doors, in violation of its 
charter, and in violation of every obligation of morality 
and every principle of public decency. This is the insti- 
tution which now comes forward for a re-charter. If 
the people grant it they will deserve to wear its chains ! 



RIOT AT THE CHATHAM-STREET CHAPEL. 

[From the Evening Post of July 8, 1834.] 
The morning papers contain accounts of a riot at 
Chatham-street chapel last evening, between a party of 
whites and a party of blacks. The story is told in the 
morning journals in very inflammatory language, and 
the whole blame is cast upon the negroes ; yet it seems 
to us, from those very statements themselves, that, as 
usual, there was fault on both sides, and more especially 
on that of the whites. It seems to us, also, that those 
who are opposed to the absurd and mad schemes of the 
immediate abolitionists, use means against that scheme 
which are neither just nor politic. We have noticed a 
great many tirades of late, in certain prints, the object of 
which appeared to be to excite the public mind to strong 
hostility to the negroes generally, and to the devisers of 
the immediate emancipation plan, and not merely to the 
particular measure reprehended. This community is 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 29 

too apt to run into excitements; and those who are now 
trying to get up an excitement against the negroes will 
have much to answer for, should their efforts be success- 
ful to the extent which some recent circumstances afford 
ground to apprehend. It is the duty of the press to dis- 
criminate ; to oppose objectionable measures, but not to 
arouse popular fury against men ; to repress, not to sti- 
mulate passion. Reisori — calm, temperate reason — may 
do much to shorten the date of the new form in which 
fanaticism has recently sprung up among us ; but perse- 
cution will inevitably have the effect of prolonging its 
existence and adding to its strength. 

The riot at the Chatham-street chapel seems to have 
grown out of the following circumstances. The New- 
York Sacred Music Society have a lease of the chapel 
for Monday and Thursday evenings throughout the year. 
Some person, in behalf of the blacks, had obtained from 
the Secretary of the Music Society permission to occupy 
the chapel last evening. The blacks thereupon issued 
printed notices of their intended meeting, which it is said 
was called for the purpose of celebrating the postponed 
festival of the Fourth of July. In pursuance of this 
notice they met and commenced their exercises. Cer- ' 
tain members of the Music Society also arrived, not 
knowing the disposition which had been made of the 
chapel ; but being informed of the circumstances, agreed 
to postpone the purpose with which they had themselves 
assembled. Their number, however, being soon aug- 
mented by the arrival of other persons, they reversed 
their first peaceable and proper resolution, and concluded 
upon insisting that possession of the chapel should be 
given to them. The blacks, in the meanwhile, had pray- 
ed, sung a hymn, and had commenced reading the Decla- 
ration of Independence. They did not seem disposed, 
3* 



i30 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

at that stage of the proceedings, to break up their meet- 
ing and retire from the chapel One of their number 
rose and requested them to do so, but others called on 
the meeting to keep their seats. The Sacred Music So- 
ciety then took forcible possession of the pulpit, and 
thereupon a general battle commenced, which seems to 
have been waged with considerable violence on both 
sides, and resulted in the usual number of broken heads 
and benches. 

We have made up the foregoing statement wholly 
from the one-sided account of the Courier and Enquirer, 
the most inflammatory and unfair paper in the city on 
what relates to negroes, as on all other subjects. We 
have simply taken its facts, without their gloss; and we 
think readers of candid and temperate minds will per- 
ceive that the blame of this disgraceful transaction lies 
more with the white persons concerned in it, than with 
their coloured antagonists. Permission had been duly 
obtained to use the chapel on this occasion ; and if it 
had not been, application should have been made to the 
civil authorities to expel the occupants. If there was any 
deception or concealment practised by Mr. Tappan in 
procuring permission to use the chapel, as is alleged, he 
made himself obnoxious to censure ; but that circumstance 
furnished no warrant to eject the blacks by force of arms. 
That it was very wrong in them, and more particularly 
ill the fanatical white persons who are leading them on, 
to meet there at all, for the purpose contemplated, or for 
any purpose, no one can deny, for it was obviously pro- 
voking; a riot. That the whole scheme of immediate 
emancipation, and of prc-miscuous intermarriage of the 
two races, is preposterous, and revolting alike to common 
sense and common decency, we shall be ever ready, on 
all occasions, to maintain. Still, this furnishes no justi- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 31 

fication for invading the undoubted rights of the blacks, 
or violating the public peace ; and we think, from the 
showing of those who mean to establish the direct con- 
trary, that these were both done by the Sacred Music 
Society. 

We are aware that we are taking the unpopular side 
of this question ; but satisfied that it is the just one, we 
are not to be deterred by any such consideration. Cer- 
tain prints have laboured very hard to get up an anti- 
negro excitement, and their efforts have in some degree 
been successful. It should be borne in mind, however, 
that fanaticism may be shown on both sides of the con- 
troversy ; and they will do the most to promote the real 
interests of their country, and of the black people them- 
selves, who will be guided in the matter by the dictates 
of reason and strict justice. The plans of the Coloniza- 
tion Society are rational and practicable ; those of the 
enthusiasts who advocate immediate and unconditional 
emancipation wholly wild and visionary. To influence 
the minds of the blacks, then, in favour of the first, we 
must have recourse to temperate argument and authentic 
facts. Whatever is calculated to inflame their minds, 
prepares them to listen to the frantic ravings of those 
who preach the latter notions. 



ABOLITION RIOTS. 

[From the Evening Post, July 11, 1834.] 
It is most earnestly to be hoped that the civil authori- 
ties will be prepared to act with all their strength, toge- 
ther with that of the military, if it should be necessary, 
to put down, this night, in the most effectual manner, any 
further attempt to make this city a scene of disgraceful 



r 



32 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

riot and tumult. A mad spirit has gone abroad among 
our populace — a spirit excited in part, no doubt, by the 
proceedings and inflammatory publications of the Aboli- 
tionists, as they are called ; but even in a greater mea- 
sure by the violent tirades of certain prints opposed to 
the Abolitionists. 

******** 

Strongly as we are opposed to the doctrines and to the 
measures of the Abolitionists, both to those of the asso- 
ciation, and those of a wilder and more deeply fanatical 
cast which are advocated in their journals, and in anony- 
mous handbills and pamphlets, yet even greater is our op- 
position to all attempts to overthrow those doctrines by 
a resort to brute unauthorized force. Yet such force has 
been almost in terms appealed to, time and again, by the 
journal we have named, and bad as the conduct of the 
Abolitionists is, it has been represented in highly exag- 
gerated colours, in order more strongly to inflame the 
public indignation against them. 

Even now that these mobs have occurred, and their pro- 
ceedings been characterized by a degree of lawless vio- 
lence highly disgraceful to the city, the press, with two 
or three exceptions, has not the wisdom and independ- 
ence to speak out boldly and energetically, and tell these 
rioters how madly they are acting. That a mob, com- 
posed more than half of boys, of wild, daring, undisciplin- 
ed boys — and a very large proportion of the other moiety 
made up of the very dregs of society — that this mob, so 
composed, and actuated by no common sentiment or ob- 
ject, further than the mere love of disorder — should be 
treated as expressing the sentiments, and wreaking the 
vengeance of this great and moral community, is an in- 
sult on the character of the city. A mob attacking and 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. dS 

destroying the private dwellings of citizens, and not stay- 
ed even at the threshold of the church, but with sacrile- 
gious fury assailing even such an edifice, though held in 
respect by the common sentiment of mankind — such a 
mob ought to be treated with no honeyed words, but all 
good citizens ought to lend their assistance to maintain 
the supremacy of the laws, and put down this insurrec- 
tionary spirit. 

No reader can for a moment suppose that we approve 
or would countenance in any degree the schemes of the 
Abolitionists. We have expressed repeatedly our deep 
abhorrence of a portion of their views, and our conviction 
that other portions are wholly visionary and impractica- 
ble. Even if their notions on the subject of abolition 
were proper in themselves, their conduct in attempting to 
propagate these notions is such that to ascribe it to fana- 
ticism is the most charitable construction. But even 
these enthusiasts, while they transgress no law, are under 
the protection of the laws, and he who without legal war- 
rant invades their houses and destroys their property, if 
he does it from any other motive than virtuous resent, 
ment against error, is an incendiary and robber ; and if 
actuated by that feeling, is himself an example of fanati- 
cism, though of an opposite kind. There are legitimate 
ways of expressing public opinion far more efficacious, as 
well as far more respectable, than a mob can ever be. 
We may call public meetings, and pass temperate but 
firm resolutions ; we may expose through the press the 
absurdity and impracticability of the views of those who 
have been the objects of assault in this case ; we may 
keep a vigilant eye upon them, and procure them to be 
indicted and visited with legal punishment whenever 
their proceedings become obnoxious to the law. But till 
then they are entitled to all the privileges and immuni- 



34 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

ties of American citizens, and have a right to be protect- 
ed in their persons and property against all assailants 
whatsoever. We trust that the authorities will this night 
show that this right is not a mere mockery ; we trust 
that the rioters will be dealt with in a wav that may long 
ensure the quiet of the city, if they dare again congre- 
gate to carry their incendiary purposes into further 
execution. 

In making these remarks, we do not wish to be under- 
stood as intimating that there has been any remissness on 
the part of the civil authorities during the previous nights. 
On the contrary, last night in particular, they were ex- 
ceedingly active, and took their measures with great 
promptitude and discretion. But it was evident that the 
disorders were far more extensive than had been antici- 
pated, and the force under the direction of the Mayor was 
therefore not sufficient for the simultaneous protection of 
all the different points where the riot was expected to 
show itself. 



ABOLITION RIOTS. 

[From the Evening Post, July 12, 1834.] 
The details which are published below, from the Jour- 
nal of Commerce and the Daily Advertiser of this morn- 
ing, are already on their way to every quarter of the 
country, to inform the whole people of the United States 
of the additional and deplorable blot which the events of 
last night have stamped on the character of this city. 
The fury of demons seems to have entered into the breasts 
of our misguided populace. Like those ferocious ani- 
mals which, having once tasted blood, are seized with an 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 35 

insatiable thirst for gore, they have had an appetite awa- 
kened for outrage, which nothing but the most extensive 
and indiscriminate destruction seems capable of appeas- 
ing. The cabin of the poor negro, and the temples dedi- 
cated to the service of the living God, are alike the ob- 
jects of their blind fury. The rights of private and pub- 
lic property, the obligations of law, the authority of its 
ministers, and even the power of the military, are all 
equally spurned by these audacious sons of riot and dis- 
order. What will be the next mark of their licentious 
wrath it is impossible to conjecture. 

* * * * * ** * 

This night the trial is to be once again made whether 
the public authorities or a lawless mob are to be masters 
of the city ; whether a motley assemblas^e of infuriated 
and besotted ruffians, animated with a hellish spirit, are 
to destroy and slay at the promptings of their wild pas- 
sions and prejudices ; or wdiether the true sentiments of 
this great community are to have their due preponder- 
ance. We accord to the city magistrates all the praise 
which their conduct hitherto deserves. But at the same 
time we must take leave to advise them, in the most seri- 
ous manner, no longer to forbear resorting to stronger 
measures, to such measures as it is now evident can 
alone effectually quell the insurrectionary and destroying 
spirit which the proceedings of the Abolitionists, the indis- 
creet comments of certain prints, and most especially the 
seditious and inflammatory advice of that journal of 
whose tone and temper a specimen is given above, have 
aroused.* We call upon them not again to repeat the 

* The extract here referred to is omitted for the reason stated 
in the Preface, that it is not the intention of this publication to re- 



36 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

idle pageant of a military procession ; not to add to the 
confidence of the rioters by an empty, ineffectual dis- 
play of unused weapons. Let them be fired upon, if 
they dare collect together again to prosecute their nefa- 
rious designs. Let those who make the first movement 
towards sedition be shot down like dogs — and thus teach 
to their infatuated followers a lesson which no milder 
course seems suihcient to inculcate. This is no time for 
expostulation or remonstrance. Forbearance towards 
these rioters is cruelty towards the orderly and peaceable 
part of the community. Let us act with such promptness 
and decision now as to ensure that there will be no repeti- 
tion of such outrages in time to come. Let us restore the 
dignity of the violated law. Let us not pause to parley 
when the foe is at the gate. Let us be brief when traitors 
brave the field. We would recommend that the whole 
military force of the city be called out ; that large detach-' 
ments be stationed wherever any ground exists to antici- 
pate tumultuary movements ; that smaller bodies patrol 
the streets in every part of the city, and that the troops 
be directed to fire upon the first disorderly assemblage 
that refuses to disperse at the bidding of lawful authority. 
This will restore peace and quietness to the city, and no- 
thincf short of this will do so. 



vive the temporary controversies of the time when these articles 
were written. 



WILLIAMLEGGETT. 37 

ANTI-SLAVERY ASSOCIATION. 

[From the Evening Post, July 22, 1834.] 
It will be seen by the report of the proceedings of the 
Board of Aldermen last evening, published in another 
column, that the communication of the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Anti-Slavery Association was treated with 
great contempt by that body. As the communication 
has been inserted, as an advertisement, in nearly all the 
newspapers, the public generally are probably pretty well 
apprized of its contents. It is a perfectly respectful do- 
cument, prepared with the purpose of showing that the 
association above named had transcended none of those 
rights which are guarantied to its members, in common 
with all their fellow-citizens, by the Constitution of the 
United States ; and that the objects of the society are not 
incompatible with the duties of its members as citizens 
under the existing institutions of this country. 

With all due respect for the motives which actuated 
the Board of Aldermen in unanimously refusing to enter- 
tain this document, we must take the liberty to say that 
we think they did not act wisely in casting it out. An 
occasion was presented them for the expression of a 
calm and temperate opinion on the conduct of the aboli- 
tionists, as it affects the peace and order of society, 
which, properly embraced, might have been pro- 
ductive of much good, both on the minds of the enthu- 
siasts in the cause of negro emancipation, and those, 
more especially, of the community at large. We would 
not have the Common Council throw itself in as a dis- 
putant in the fierce and inflammatory discussion which 
has already engaged so many fiery antagonists ; but we 
should have been glad to see it treat the subject as a le- 
gislative body — as a body of municipal magistrates, charg- 
ed with the framing and the enforcing of the laws. We 
Vol. L— 4 



38 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

should have heen glad if this letter of Arthur Tappan 
and his associates had^been referred to a discreet and in- 
telligent committee, to the end that they might draw up a 
report, not controverting the abstract notions of the abo- 
litionists on the subject of the emancipation and equal 
rights of the blacks, but proving by mild and judicious ar- 
guments, that even if the end they aim at is in itself 
proper, the time is ill chosen, and the means employed 
calculated, not merely to defeat their object, but to plunge 
the negroes into a far worse condition than that which 
they are noW taught by their deluded guides to repine at. 
The report might further have shown, that, even 
allowing the time to be well chosen for the work, and the 
means adapted to the end, they pursue a radically erro- 
neous course in' addressing their doctrines to the negroes 
themselves, whom they thus render discontented and 
wretched, but whose condition they cannot meliorate, 
*ro effect their object the minds of the whites must be 
convinced of its propriety ; and all discourses addressed 
to the blacks meanwhile, to show them the degradation of 
their situation, and their natural right to an equal foot- 
ing with the race of white men, mAist inevitably tend, at 
the best, to make them unhappy, and may lead to scenes 
of outrage which the mind shudders to contemplate. 

In a report such as we are supposing, the committee 
might also have taken occasion to speak words of saluta- 
ry counsel to those classes of the community most likely 
to be stirred up to acts of violence by the fanatical con- 
duct of the abolitionists. They might have shown them 
that any insurrectionary movement, instead of effecting 
the object desired, would, by an invariable law of human 
nature, be followed by a very contrary result. They 
might have shown, that persecution is the very fuel that 
feeds the fire of fanaticism ; that such men as the aboli- 
tionists are but fixed more firmly in their faith by the op- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 39 

position that seeks to prostrate thera ; that Hke the waves 
of the ocean, which swell from billows into mountains as 
the gale rages against them, their spirits but rise the 
higher when assailed by a storm of popular fury, nor sub- 
side again till the tempest is overpast. Fanaticism has 
ever flourished most exuberantly in the most into- 
lerant countries; nor are there many minds in this com- 
munity so ignorant of the history of nations as not to 
know, that, whether in religion or politics, enthusiasm 
gains strength and numbers the more its dogmas are op- 
posed. The effort to put down the Roman Catholic re- 
ligion by persecution has been tried, and with what re- 
sult ? The attempt to destroy the heresy, as it was 
deemed, of the Covenanters in Scotland, by hunting 
down its professors, was also thoroughly tried; but 
though the devoted peasantry were driven to caves and 
dens, and forced to subsist on the roots of the earth, 
the storm of religious persecution, instead of extinguish- 
ing, only fanned the fire of zeal into a fiercer flame. 

These are views which, if the Common Council had 
embraced the opportunity of the letter of Arthur Tappan 
and his associates to put them before the community, in 
a report drawn up with ability and judgment, might, we 
think, have been productive of very considerable good. 
The Anti-Slavery Society, as the reader probably re- 
marked, after stating that nothing had occurred to 
change their views on those subjects in relation to which 
they are associated, declare their determination not " to 
recant or relinquish any principle or measure they have 
adopted," but on the contrary, avow their readiness 
"to live and die" by the principles they have espoused. 
In this — however mistaken, however mad, we may con- 
sider their opinions in relation to the blacks — what 
honest, independent mind can blame them ? Where is the 
man so poor of soul, so white-livered, so base, that h9 



40 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

would do less, in relation to any important doctrine in 
which he religiously believed? Where is the man who 
would have his tenets drubbed into him by the clubs of 
ruffians, or would hold his conscience at the dictation of 
a mob ? 

There is no man in this community more sincerely 
and strongly opposed to the views and proceedings of the 
abolitionists than this journal is, and always has been. 
Our opposition was commenced long before that of those 
prints which now utter the most intemperate declama- 
tion on the subject, not have we omitted to express it on 
any proper occasion since. But in doing this temper- 
ately, in employing argument and reasoning, instead of 
calling on the populace "to arm and strike a blow for 
liberty" — instead of painting disgusting portraits of the 
"blubber lips and sooty blood of negroes" — we think we 
are more effectually advancing the desired end, than we 
possibly could, by the most furious and inflammatory ap- 
peals to the angry passions of the multitude. Indeed, 
one of the reasons why we lamented the late violations of 
public order and private right, was, that the effect of such 
outrages would be to increase, instead of abating, the 
zeal of abolition fanaticism, and warm many minds per- 
haps, which were before only moderately inclined to those 
doctrines, to a pitch of intemperate ardour. The wildest 
fancies that ever entered into a disordered brain are 
adopted as truths when he who utters them meets with 
unreasonable persecution ; while, if unnoticed, or noticed 
only by the proper tribunals, they make no harmful 
impression, even on the mind of credulity itself. " The 
lightning hallows where it falls," and so the bolt of per- 
secution, in the eyes of thousands, sanctifies what it 
strikes. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 



41 



SMALL NOTE CIRCULATION. 

[From the Evening Post of August 6, 1834.] 
Now that real money has come into circulation — now 
that the country is plentifully supplied with gold and sil- 
ver — we trust the friends of a sound currency will take 
pains, and adopt all proper measures, to banish small 
notes from use. We call upon every man who professes 
to be animated with the principles of the democracy, to 
assist in accomplishing the great work of redeeming this 
country from the curse of our bad bank system. We 
never shall be a truly free and happy people while sub- 
ject, as we now are, to Bank domination. No system 
could possibly be devised more certainly fatal to the 
great principle on which our government rests — the glo- 
rious principle of equal rights — than the Banking system, 
as it exists in this country. It is hostile to every re- 
ceived axiom of political economy, it is hostile to morals, 
and hostile to freedom. Its direct and inevitable ten- 
dency is to create artificial inequalities and distinctions 
in society ; to increase the wealth of the rich, and render 
more abject and oppressive the poverty of the poor. It 
fosters a spirit of speculation, destructive of love of coun- 
try — a spirit which substitutes an idol of gold for that 
better object which patriotism worships — a spirit which 
paralyzes all the ardent and generous impulses of our 
nature, and creates, instead, a sordid and rapacious 
desire of gain, to minister to the insatiable cravings of 
which becomes the sole aim of existence. 

We do not expect and do not desire to overthrow our 
pernicious Banking system suddenly. We would not, if 
we could, do aught to infringe the chartered privileges 
of Banks already existing. Were they ten times worse 

in their effects than they are, we would not justify a 
4* 



42 POLIITCAL WRITINGS OF 

breach of the public faith to get rid of the evil. But we 
desire most ardently that it may not be permitted to 
spread more widely. The legislatures may at least say, 
« Thus far shalt thou go and no further ; here shall thy 
proud waves be stayed." They may refuse to grant any 
more charters of incorporation, and may take effectual 
measures to prohibit the small note issues. These mea- 
sures constitute the proper first step in the great reform- 
ation for which we contend, and these measures the de- 
mocracy of the country — if we do not strangely misinter- 
pret their sentiments — will demand. 

But in the meanwhile, the means are within the 
reach of the people themselves to do much — very much 
— towards the accomplishment of "the desired object. 
Let employers provide themselves with gold to pay their 
hands ; and let the hands of those employers who con- 
tinue in the practice, which has been too extensive, of 
procuring uncurrent money to pay them, take such mea- 
sures to remedy the evil as are within their reach, and 
not inconsistent with prudence. The practice is wholly 
unjustifiable, and stands, in a moral point of view, on 
a footing not very different from that of clipping coins. 
The law, however, which we all know is not always 
framed in the most perfect accordance with the princi- 
ples of ethics, makes this important difference, that 
while to the one species of dishonesty it extends full pro- 
tection, the other it visits with the most ignominious pun- 
ishment. But though protected by the law, workmen 
may do much to rid themselves of the evils of this prac- 
tise, and at the same time forward the great object of 
democracy — ultimate emancipation from the shackles of 
a detestable Bank tyranny. Let them remember, when 
paid in small uncurrent notes, that the longer they retain 
possession of those notes the greater is the profit of the 
Bank that issued themj and therefore let them take the 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 43 

best means within their reach of causing' them to be re- 
turned to the Bank. Every dollar-note in circulation 
has displaced an equal amount of gold and silver, and, on 
the other hand, every dollar of gold and silver, you keep 
in circulation, will displace twice or three times its 
amount in paper money. 

Paper money is fingered by a great many hands, as 
may be easily perceived from the soiled and worn ap- 
pearance of many of the bills. A cheap, and, to a cer- 
tain extent, most effectual method of disseminating the 
principles of those opposed to incorporated rag-money 
manufactories, would be for them to write upon the back 
of every bank-note which should come into their posses- 
sion, some short sentence expressive of their sentiments. 
For example — " No Monopolies ! " " No Union of Banks 
and State ! " " Jackson and Hard Money ! " " Gold be- 
fore Rags ! " and the like. When it should become 
their duty to endorse a bill issued by a Bank, the charter 
of which was obtained by bribery and collusion, (as many 
such there be) it would be well to inscribe upon it in a 
clear and distinct hand, " Wages of Iniquity ! " 

What we have here recommended may seem to be but 
child's play ; but we are satisfied that if the workingmen, 
upon whom the worst trash of Bank rags are palmed off, 
would only adopt such a practice, and persist in it for a 
short time, they would see the good result. The worst 
class of uncurrent notes would soon be plentifully endors- 
ed, for it is the worst description of money which is gen- 
erally bought to pay away to mechanics, in order that 
their employers may avoid paying them as large a pro- 
portion as possible of their just wages. Let them consi- 
der the hints thrown out in this article, and they can 
hardly fail, we think, to perceive, that if generally acted 
upon, they would have an important effect in assisting 
the introduction of gold as a currency, in the place of 



44 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the small note circulation of which there is so much rea- 
son to complain. 



RESOLUTIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIC 
REPUBLICAN COMMITTEE. 

[From the Evening Post, August 12, 1834.] 

Two advertisements, one from " the Democratic Re- 
publican Young Men's Committee," signed by Morgan 
L. Smith as Chairman, and the other from " the Demo- 
cratic Republican General Committee," signed by Eld ad 
Holmes, have been published regularly in the Times, 
the first articles in its columns, for the last eight or ten 
days past. These advertisements purport to be the pro- 
ceedings of the Committees, at a meeting held by each on 
the evening of the fourth of this month. They each con- 
sist of three resolutions ; both sets of resolutions have, 
pari passu, a corresponding object, and are expressed in 
language of great similarity ; and both, we presume, may 
be ascribed to the same paternity. Being thus, as it 
were, twin-brothers, we shall s-ave space by copying only 
the set that stands first, which will sufficiently acquaint 
the reader with the ground of the remarks we are about 
to offer. They are as follows : 

" At a regular meeting of the Democratic Republican 
Young Men's Committee, held at Tammany Hall, on the 
evening of the 4th instant, the following resolutions were 
unanimously adopted : 

" Resolved, That this Committee highly approve the 
political course of ' The New- Yo7'Jc Times,' a paper re- 
cently established, for the independent and fearless 
course it has pursued in support of the Democratic Re- 
publican principles of the present administration, and 
that we therefore confidently recommend it to the confi- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 45 

dence and patronage of our Democratic Republican 
friends. 

"Resolved, That the New-York Evening Post, the 
Truth Teller, and the other democratic papers, having 
been consistent and able labourers in the cause of Re- 
publican principles, are entitled to the continued confi- 
dence and support of this Committee. 

<' Resolved, That the above resolutions be printed in 
the Democratic Republican papers, and signed by the 
Chairman and Secretaries." 

We certainly can have no objection that either of the 
General Committees, or both, should express their appro- 
bation of the course of the Times, for its course, or that 
they should confidently recommend it to confidence and 
patronage. There is nothing in this recommendation, 
except its tautology, at which any one has a right to feel 
offended. The Times is a new paper, was set up under 
peculiar circumstances, and may stand in need of such 
an endorsement. Its course has, certainly, so far, been 
as exactly and carefully squared by party rules as the 
most thorough-going party -man could desire, and it was 
therefore but reasonable that the Committees should be 
called together, and requested confidently to express 
their confidence in that print. If they had stopped 
there not one word of dissatisfaction should they have 
heard from us. 

But so far as the Eve?sing Post is made to figure in 
these resolutions, we must confess we are not exactly 
pleased. We have never presented ourselves, cap in 
hand, to either of the Committees, to beg their most 
sweet voices ; we have never asked their aid, or their 
endorsement in any way or shape ; and do not feel that 
our dignity or importance is increased now that it is vol- 
untarily bestowed. For years we have maintained, with 
industry and zeal, the principles of democracy ; we have 



46 - POLITICAL WRITINGS. OF 

been forward to engage in every contest in which we 
considered the rights or interests of the people were put 
to hazard ; we have been strenuous in asserting the great 
doctrine of equal rights ; we have utterly shut our eyes 
and turned a deaf ear to considerations of private inter- 
est ; we have hesitated not to speak in terms of severest 
truth to our misled and misdoing merchants, although 
they were the chief supporters of our journal ; we have 
been vigilant and active in season, and out of season ; 
and now, veril}^, we at last have our reward ! — to be put 
at the fag-end of a resolution got up to glorify the 
Times ! — a paper of yesterday ! a print which has all the 
gloss of newness yet upon it ; which, hov/ever sound in 
its doctrines, and firm in its principles, bears no m.arks of 
fight, can show no scars, has made no sacrifices. 

We repeat, we have no objection that the Democratic 
Committee should glorify that paper, and recommend it 
to " patronage,'' (a most undemocratic word, by the way,) 
we have no objection they should laud its course, — (we 
also are gratified with its general tone and manage- 
ment,) — we have no objection that they should nod their 
heads in approbation, and thus give " the stamp of fate 
and signal of a god." But we do object to being our- 
selves lugged in to fill up the cry — we do object to being 
put in the same category with the Truth Teller and all 
the other democratic 'papers. It is a fortunate thing for 
us, by the way, that the Democratic Chronicle happened 
to expire a few days before this ovation to the Times, or 
the Evening Post might have found itself placed side by 
side with that disgusting dealer in filth and personalities, 
as an equally worthy champion in the same republican 
cause. 

We do most sincerely and urgently request the two 
Committees that they will hereafter let us alone. This 
is a request they can scarcely refuse to grant, since it is 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 47 

the first we ever made of them. We request that, here- 
after, when any one interested in a new paper, wishes 
them to stand its sponsors, that the Evening Post may 
not be required to swing the censer, or bear any other 
subaltern part in the ceremonial. As for their " patron- 
age," or that of any other body, or individual, we never 
asked it, and never shall. The democrats who like our 
course will probably continue to take our paper, not- 
withstanding the unkind cut of the Committees in thus 
thrusting us into the train of the Times. And as for the 
Committees' own, direct " patronage," (which means 
advertising to the amount of some forty or fifty dollars a 
year,) they are at liberty, nay, they are desired to with- 
draw it, whenever they think they do not get their mo- 
ney's worth. It is on this footing that we wish to stand 
with all our subscribers and advertisers. We desire no 
man's " patronage," and no man's business, who does 
not receive from us a full and fair equivalent for all he 
renders. 



REPLY TO THE » TIMES." 

[From the Evening Post, August 13, 1834.] 
The Times of this morning incorrectly represents the 
ground of the Evening Post's complaint against the two 
Committees which were called together a fortnight ago 
to endorse that paper. We assure the Times that we feel 
not the slightest jealousy towards it, nor do we in the 
least envy its good fortune in receiving a stamp of appro- 
bation from the two Democratic Committees. We hope 
that endorsement may effect the end which was intended, 
for while the Times continues its endeavours to forward 
the republican cause we shall be glad to see it sustained. 
We expressed yesterday our approbation of its general 



48 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

tone and management ; and so far from wishing to sup- 
plant it in the affections of the general Committee, or of 
the Young Men's Committee, we only complained that 
the Evening Post, with all the other democratic papers, 
was lugged in to divide honours which we were quite 
willing should be conferred on the Times alone. 

As to which is the leading paper, that is a question we 
are quite content to submit to the readers of the several 
journals, not thinking the matter by any means settled 
by the precedence given to the Times in the resolutions 
it refers to. It perhaps deserves that precedence ; but 
though we do not claim to be a better soldier, we certain- 
ly are an older soldier than the Times, and bear some 
marks of the service we have passed through. Thus, for 
our course in support of the interests of the democratic 
party and in defence of the great principle of Equal 
Rights, we lost last year several hundred mercantile sub- 
scribers — and this is the first time we have ever breathed 
a syllable on the subject. Did we waver in our faith, 
did we falter in our struggle, did we slacken in our ener- 
gy, when the merchants were running about, from count- 
ing-room to counting-room, and beseeching their brother 
merchants to stop the Evening Post ? — when men who 
had taken our paper for thirty years, wrote us insolent 
notes, commanding its discontinuance ? — when such per- 
sons as exerted themselves with might 

and main, to induce our subscribers to forsake us and take 
the Evening Star instead ? — and when the news of a 
discontinuance was received in Wall-street with half- 
frantic cheers ? Did we not, all the while, pursue the 
forward tenor of our way with unabated zeal, exposing 
the true nature of the conflict which the Rich were wag- 
ing against the Poor — the Aristocracy against the Demo- 
cracy ? Did we utter a complaint ? Did we ask the 
General Committee, or the Young Men's Committee, or 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 49 

any other Committee, or any person, for assistance ? 
Did we not stand on our own resources, and look alone 
to the final triumph of truth for our reward ? 

We ask the Times, then, if we have not a right to 
complain, when we find ourselves thrust in at the tail of 
a proceeding got up to do honour and service to it ? We 
have fought the battle of the Democracy for years, and 
were never made the subject of a special endorsement by 
the two Committees which have countersigned the 
Times. That troubled us not — we asked not their stamp 
— we desired it not. Nor does it trouble us that their 
stamp is now impressed upon the Times. That paper is 
welcome to the distinction, and we hope it may answer 
the end to give it greater currency. But that, to con- 
summate its apotheosis, we should be mixed up in a batch 
with the Truth Teller and all the other democratic pa- 
pers, and thrown in as a make-weight, is certainly a mark 
of" continued confidence and respect," of a very sinister 
description, to say the least of it. 

Let it not be supposed that we mean aught we have 
here said to express disparagement of the Truth Teller, 
of the merits of which spirited and zealous weekly jour- 
nal we are fully sensible. The Truth Teller itself has a 
right to complain of being kneaded into a common lump 
with a parcel of nameless prints — no one may say how 
many nor of what character. But if the Truth Teller, 
which is a weekly paper, and devoted but in part to 
American politics, has a right to feel displeased, how 
much more so have we, that for a long series of years 
have bent our undivided energies to one object, the pro- 
motion of the fundamental principles of the Republican 
party ? But we do not complain ; we confine our ani- 
madversions to a single request — that the Committees 
will hereafter let us alone, to pursue our own course, in our 
own way, and not drag us, against our will, to serve as 
Vol. I.— 5 



50 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

torch-bearers or train-holders in any triumphant proces. 
sion in honour of any new object of their glorification. 
If we cannot recommend ourselves to the democracy, we 
do not wish the Committees to do it for us. And as to 
being harnessed to the triumphal car of the Tim.es, it is a 
piece of service we do not affect — we are somewhat res- 
tive, and might throw the train into confusion by kicking 
out of the traces. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. 

[From the Evening Post of August 19, 1834.] 
The duties of our situation oblige us to study with 
more attention than mere taste might incline us to do, 
the indications of public sentiment and public policy, as 
furnished by the course and tone of political journals, 
and the proceedings of political meetings. From the 
survey we have taken of the movements of the opposi- 
tion party, for the last few months, it seems to us quite 
evident that they are laying a scheme to cheat the peo- 
ple out of the election of President. They seem to act on 
a principle of settled distrust of the intelligence and pa- 
triotism of the great body of the people, and to have laid 
their plans to carry their object in defiance of the wishes 
of a majority. For this purpose, it is their present aim 
to bring together, and combine into one body, all the 
materials of opposition, however dissimilar and heteroge- 
neous, with a view to return to the next Congress as 
many members as possible opposed to the present admi- 
nistration, no matter how contrariant and irreconcileable 
their respective grounds of opposition. 

This object accomplished, their next step will be, not 
by mutual compromise and conciliation to name some 
candidate for the President on whom all the diversified 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 51 

vsects of their composite party might unite ; for they are 
sensible that such harmony of action is impossible, and 
that they are not more hostile to the present administra- 
tion than they are to each other ; but for each faction to 
set up its own candidate, and support him in his own 
particular district of country, in the hope that the sum of 
the votes thus scattered among the various chiefs of the 
opposition may be sufficient to defeat an election by the 
people, and carry the question into the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Should the question be between the candi- 
date of the democracy, and any single candidate the op- 
position might name, they are well aware that the choice 
of the democratic party would be ratified by a very large 
majority of votes. They will therefore seek to distract 
the public mind by a multiplicity of candidates, to take 
the election out of the hands of the people, and submit it 
to a body where each state has only an equal voice, and 
where experience has shown that collusion and intrigue 
may obtain a decision in direct opposition to the clearly 
expressed will of the great body of the people of the 
United States. 

That this is the game which the various united fac- 
tions that compose the opposition intend to play off there 
can be no manner of doubt. It is a corrupt scheme, 
because it is devised with a manifest intention and desire 
of preventing a fair expression of the popular will ; and 
the preliminary steps are corrupt, because in the indus- 
trious and almost incredible efforts which the combined 
parties of the opposition are now making to elect mem- 
bers to Congress opposed to the administration, great 
pains are taken to conceal from the people the ultimate 
object which they have in view. For this purpose the 
war is waged simply on the broad ground of hostility to 
the Executive and to Martin Van Buren. No definite 
principles of action or of public policy are avowed ; be- 



52 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

cause there are none on which this amalgamated body 
of political antipathies could agree. No name of a suc- 
cessor is breathed ; because the utterance of such a name 
would dissolve the unholy spell which binds them together 
before the great end of the ill-assorted union is achieved. 
It is therefore opposition to the administration which 
they alone venture to declare as their motive of action, 
and to this motive they attempt to give a colour of patri- 
otism by the iteration of certain sounding and illusory 
phrases, the ready resort of political knaves and dema- 
gogues in all countries and all ages of the world. 

Among the catchwords on which they seem most to 
rely for success, are the shouts which they are forever 
bawling in our ears, of " Constitution and Laws ! " and 
" Principles, not men ! " As to their pretended venera- 
tion for the Constitution and Laws, it accords well with 
a party whose only hopes of success rest on the issue of 
a deliberate fraud upon the People! We say a fraud 
upon the People — and what can be a more positive and 
flagitious fraud, than this combination of political sects, 
as opposite as day and night in their doctrines and views, 
acting together, not with a view to establish any common 
and definite course of policy for the administration of the 
General Government, but simply for the preliminary pur- 
pose of pulling down a Chief Magistrate who enjoys the 
confidence and affections of the People — each leader of 
those opposite factions inwardly trusting to his own skill 
in the arts of collusion, intrigue, and ccrruption, to win 
over the partizans of the others in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and thus secure the Presidential succession to 
himself ? 

When the country beholds the leaders of the most con- 
tradictory and irreconcileable political doctrines that 
were ever entertained under our confederacy leaguing 
together for a common purpose of hostility to the domi- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 



53 



nant party, and all joining with equal lustiness in the cry 
of Constitution and Laws ! even Charity herself would 
whisper that their conduct and motives ought to be scruti- 
nized with vigilantly inquiring eyes. Is it the leader of 
the sect which professes the nullification heresy whose 
fears are aroused for the safety of the Constitution and 
Laws ? What ! he who but a few months ago raised the 
standard of revolt, advised the South to spurn with con- 
tempt the revenue laws of the country, and to resist 
their enforcement to the death ! What ! he who talked 
of sundering the Union, of establishing a separate repub. 
lie, and of shooting down like beasts that perish any such 
of his fellovz-countrymen as, in pursuance of the orders 
of Government, should cross the borders of South Caro- 
lina to enforce the violated laws ! Is he now one of the 
chief leaders of the opposition party against the Execu- 
tive, on the ground of an invasion of the Constitution 
and Laws ? A fit minister of vengeance for such an 
offence ! Fellow-countrymen, watch him well ! 

Hand in hand with him, the next one of the league 
who attracts our notice is connected with reminiscences 
of a very different nature. In him we behold the author 
of that gigantic scheme of injustice and oppression, the 
object of which was to build up a manufacturing aristo- 
cracy, and enrich them out of the earnings of the hardy 
sons of commerce ; that scheme, which under the sound- 
ing pretence of holding out protection to American 'in- 
dustry, was intended to strengthen the General Govern- 
ment at the expense of the States, and to lay the founda- 
tion of an enormous and profligate system of public ex- 
penditure which would have resulted, at no distant day, 
in the total overthrow of the liberties of the American 
people ; that scheme which was devised to advance his 
own ambitious views, in defiance of the provisions of the 
Constitution, and of the rights and interests of the South ; 
5* 



54 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

and the palpable injustice and cruel oppression of which 
led the Nullifier with whom he is now joined in a pretend- 
ed fraternal embrace to those traitorous measures which, 
but for the inflexible patriotism and energy of our Chief 
Magistrate, would have eventuated in the dissolution of 
our inestimable union. He also is a fit one now to wage 
war against the administration on the ground of its vio- 
lation of the " Constitution and Laws." 

A third one in this unholy league has ever been dis- 
tinguished by his opposition to the equal rights of the 
people, and to the fundamental principles of the demo- 
cratic party. In him we behold a man in whom hostility 
to democracy is the only principle which he has never 
forsaken — a man who opposed with all his energy the 
measures of the Government when at war with Great 
Britain ; who rejoiced in the victories of the enemy ; 
who at one time was the opponent, and then the advocate, 
of the United States Bank ; at one time a declaimer 
against the American System, and then its fast friend. 
This is the third member of the triumvirate of political 
rivals who join in proclaiming as their watchvvord and 
battle-cry, the Constitution and Laws ! 

Among the vague and ambiguous sentiments by which 
they profess to be governed, is the stale and unmeaning 
phrase, of " Principles not MenJ^ This is one of those 
juggling maxims with which sordid and selfish politicians 
have ever attempted to cheat mankind. It has an honest 
and taking sound, but is utterly without substance, a 
mere jingle of words, vox et prceterea nihil. Not much 
discernment is requisite to detect the fallacy and empti- 
ness of this dishonest invention of unprincipled dema- 
gogues ; for surely any man must perceive that princi- 
ples without men, are little better than men without prin- 
ciples. Do they mean to elect their principles to office ? 
Do they mean to have us governed by abstractions ? by 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 55 

a body of ethics ? by a set of precepts ? or will they, 
like every other party, be sooner or later obliged to hold 
forward some man, as the person who is governed by their 
principles, and who, if chosen, will carry them into exer- 
cise? This wretched sophistry o^ ^^ 'principles not men^"^ 
has been used, all the world over, as a cloak for political 
knavery — as a convenient shelter for those to fight behind, 
who had no principles at all, and who were endeavour- 
ing to elevate men so notoriously unworthy, that pru- 
dence forbade their being named. " It is an advantage 
to all narrow wisdom and narrow morals," says Burke, 
"that their maxims have a plausible air, and, on a cursory 
view, appear equal to first principles. They are light 
and portable. They are as current as copper coin ; and 
about as valuable. They serve equally the first capaci- 
ties and the lowest ; and they are at least as useful to the 
worst men as the best. Of this stamp is the cant of 
I^ot men hut measures ; a sort of charm by which many 
people get loose from every honourable engagement." If 
the opposition party, or the" Whig party," as they pre- 
fer to call themselves, are one — one in their political doc- 
trines and political objects — let them avow what their 
doctrines and objects are ; let them name the person 
whom they desire to elevate that he may carry them into 
effect : let us see what are their principles and who are 
their men. " Unqualified and uncompromising hostility 
to Martin Van Buren," is but half a motive. Pulling 
down is but a moiety of the work they have to achieve ; 
they must build up, also ; and the People are curious to 
see what sort of a mixed and composite administration 
they propose to create out of the various materials of 
which their heterogeneous party is composed. 



56 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

SMALL NOTES AND THE STATE BANKING 

SYSTEM. 

[From the Evening Post, August 26, 1834.] 
Every day adds to the number of the indications, which 
any man not blind must perceive, that the great body of 
the democracy of this state are radically opposed to the 
Banking System, as it exists in this country, and are de- 
termined to insist that their representatives in the legis- 
lature shall take the first great step towards a reforma- 
tion, by prohibiting the issue of small notes. The 
Albany Argus has at last taken a decided stand on this 
subject, and we notice with great pleasure that several 
sound and influential country journals have likewise ex- 
pressed themselves in favour of the prohibition, in manly 
and explicit terms. The Poughkeepsie Telegraph has 
the following sensible paragraph on the subject. [Here 
follows extract.l 

The Albany Argus of last Saturday quotes the fore- 
going paragraph, with a remark, that it is " happy to 
perceive that the question of restricting the issue of bank 
notes of the smaller denominations is beginning to receive 
the notice of the republican press, as well as of the peo- 
ple in their primary meetings," and it avows its " full 
concurrence, both in the general expression, and in the 
extent of the restriction." 

So far, so well. One step further, however, is demand- 
ed, both by the sentiments of a very large portion of the 
democracy, and by a due regard to the political princi- 
ples on which the democratic party is founded. The 
Bank system is an insidious enemy of democracy. It is 
an essentially aristocratic institution. It has stolen upon 
us like a thief in the night. It has sprung up among us, 
before the people were aware of its true nature and its 
rapid growth. Either the Bank system, which, in other 
words, is an odious system of exclusive privileges, must 



WILLIABI LEGGETT. 



57 



be put down, or the days of democracy are numbered. 
We wish not this to be done by any sudden or violent 
means ; but we look upon it as the bounden duty of all 
who really entertain republican sentiments ; who would 
really grieve to see this country lapsing into aristocracy ; 
who really desire to preserve the great and fundamental 
principle to the democratic party — the glorious principle 
of Equal Rights ; — we look upon it as the bounden duty 
of all such to oppose, by all proper means, our most per- 
nicious system of banking — a system which has grown 
up in this country so rapidly, and has acquired such for- 
midable power, that we already present the degrading 
spectacle of a people professing to be self-governed, and 
yet completely held, in many respects, in the vile fetters 
of a host of exclusively privileged money monopolies. 

We say, therefore, that one step further than the mere 
restriction of small bank-notes is necessary. The senti- 
ment ought to be distinctly avowed that no new bank 
charters shall be granted, and no existing charters extend- 
ed, either in duration or amount. Let the legislators be 
chosen with a full understanding that this is the wish of 
the people. Let them be told that they are to truck or' 
bargain away no more exclusive money privileges, for any 
political or pecuniary consideration whatever, or for any 
other purpose, real or pretended. Let them understand, 
moreover, that these steps are but the beginning of a sys- 
tem of measures which will be steadily persevered in by the 
democracy, until every vestige of monopoly has disap- 
peared from the land, and until banking — as most other 
occupations are now, and as all ought to be — is left open 
to the free competition of all who choose to enter into 
that pursuit. 

We have already too many banks, viewing the subject 
without reference to the question of exclusive privileges. 
We have too many banks, merely considering them as 



53 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

instruments to supply a circulating medium. The banks 
which already exist cannot possibly do a profitable busi- 
ness, except by fostering a harmful, demoralizing spirit 
of overtrading and speculation. There is no good reason 
why a single additional charter should be granted, or 
why the capital of any bank should be enlarged. We 
therefore hope that the democracy, throughout the state, 
will be careful to let their sentiments on this interesting 
and important subject be fully and clearly expressed. 
In this city, we would in a particular manner call upon 
the people to give free and emphatic utterance to their 
wishes. 

For our own part, this journal long ago voluntarily 
declared it would support no candidate for the legislature 
who is not understood to be unequivocally opposed to the 
granting of any new bank charter, or to the extending of 
any new one. This, and the determination to prohibit 
the issue of notes of a less denomination than five dollars, 
constitute a qualification, without which no candidate 
shall receive our support. The people have groaned and 
sweated under Bank tyranny long enough. It is time 
that they should rise in their strength, and assert their 
right to be freed from the petty yet galling despotism of 
money incorporations. 



THE ELECTION. 

[From the Evening Post, Sept. 24, 1834.] 
The more we reflect on the recommendation of the 
Bank party at the meeting at Masonic Hall to the mer- 
chants of this city, to close their stores during the election, 
the more we are struck with the probable, nay almost cer- 
tain consequences of such a rash and malignant proce- 
dure. Not that we apprehend any results injurious to 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 59 

our cause, or to those by whom it is supported. The 
hard hands, sturdy Hmbs, and honest hearts of the demo- 
cracy of this city, are fully adequate to the defence of 
their sacred right of suffrage. Other considerations, 
therefore, have impelled, and will still impel us, to raise 
our voice against this second attempt to throw our city 
into confusion ; to frighten our peaceable citizens into the 
innermost sanctuary of their dwellings ; to invite to riot 
and bloodshed ; and to bring disgrace on the name, the 
practices, and the principles of free government. 

Hitherto, and until resort was had to^this new expedient 
of letting loose upon the peaceful voters of this city, a host 
of mac -headed young men and half-grown men, for the 
purpose of marching out of their own peculiar wards into 
those where they had no business to go, for the purpose of 
surrounding the polls and insulting the democratic voters 
— until that pernicious example was set by the pretended 
supporters of order and decency, the elections of this coun- 
try were the boast of our people, and the admiration of 
foreigners. Contrasted with the riots, the battles, and 
the broken heads of the English polls, they exhibited to 
the world the example of a decorous and peaceful strug- 
gle for power, honourable to the nation, and doubly ho- 
nourable to the spirit of liberty. They afforded a full and 
unanswerable refutation of the vain assumption of aristo- 
cratic pride, that disorder and licentiousness will ever ac- 
company a general diffusion of the right of suffrage, and 
deprived the enemies of freedom of their last argument 
against the equal rights of the people. 

Hence, one of the great objects of the Bank'party in 
adopting the measure which is the subject of these re- 
marks, undoubtedly is, to goad on the young men and 
boys who are in a state of dependence, to provoke the 
people to acts of violence, by every means in their power, 
and then to proclaim to the world that these acts of just 



60 POLITICAL WHITINGS OF 

resentment are the boiling effervescences of the turbulent 
spirit of democracy. They intend to draw new argu- 
ments against equal rights and universal suffrage, from 
the consequences that may result from their own mad, 
malignant measures, and to charge the honest, industri- 
ous, upright, independent voters of this city with all the 
odium of acts forced upon them in their own defence. 
Such was the course they pursued during the last, such 
the course they are about pursuing in the coming elec- 
tion. In the former of these occasions, by the instru- 
mentality of that dexterity in falsehood and misrepresenta- 
tion which seems to be the main pillar of their principles 
and their practices, they metamorphosed the breakers of 
the peace into the conservators of the peace, and con- 
verted an attack on the property of the state, into a de- 
fence of the rights and property of the citizens. By the 
same adroitness at legerdemain, they will without doubt 
attempt to make the world believe, that a similar course 
of conduct on a future occasion resulted from the same 
disinterested regard to the public welfare, and the peace 
of the city. 

If such is not the secret motive of this letting slip the 
doffs of war upon us, to what other motive shall we ascribe 
a measure so fraught with consequences such as they 
without doubt anticipate ? Cannot these youngsters 
come quietly, one by one, and give in their votes, if they 
are entitled by age and residence, and go about their 
business when they have done so, like the rest of their 
fellow-citizens ? To what purpose throng about the polls, 
day after day, except to impede others, insult their feel- 
ino"s, and provoke them to retaliation ? Do they expect 
to gain any votes by this course of conduct ? Certainly 
not. Their object is to prevent others from voting ; to 
pry into the ballots of such tradesmen, mechanics, and 
labourers, as may be in the employment of the lordly 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 61 

master they themselves serve, and denounce them for fu- 
ture proscription, and finally, in the last resort, to invite 
the sturdy democracy to resent their impertinent inter- 
ference. 

But whatever may be the motives and the expectations 
of these " friends of order and decency," we earnestly 
hope, though we can scarcely in reason expect, they will 
be signally disappointed. We hope the manly and sedate 
democracy of our city, conscious of its superior strength, 
virtue, and independence, will content itself with laugh- 
ing to scorn these puny insects, that come to buzz their 
impertinencies in their ears, and in the stern yet tempe- 
rate spirit of utter contempt, treat them as spoiled chil- 
dren, invited to dangerous mischief, and ignorant of its 
probable consequences. Let them recollect that these 
misguided young men and beardless boys, are but the in- 
nocent puppets of violent and interested leaders, who send 
them forth as tools and cats-paws to provoke the men of 
the city, and bring upon their own heads the conse- 
quences of their own doings. We earnestly hope the pa- 
rents of these indiscreet and deluded youth will make use 
of their authority, and enjoin them on their obedience 
and duty to keep away from these riotous meetings at 
Masonic Hall, and stay at home of evenings, under the 
sacred protection of their hearths and firesides. Finally, 
we call upon the ministers of the Gospel of Peace, in the 
spirit of pastors of their flocks, and advocates of social or- 
der, to adjure the aged to exert their influence to prevent 
their sons going forth thus to throw firebrands into the 
city. 

What will be the probable result of this rabble of hot. 
headed young men and indiscreet boys, with their ships 
and their banners, intruding into the wards where they 
neither reside or have a vote ? At first, perhaps, a con- 
test of cutting jests, and bitter repartee, in which those 
Vol. I.~6 



62 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

who get the worst will become the most irrritated. From 
hard words to hard blows is but a single step. The mad- 
ness will spread ; the cudgel will be lifted ; the paving- 
stones and brick-bats will fly ; the concealed dirk will be 
drawn ; blood will flow, and innocent lives pay the for- 
feit of the madness of youth, spurred on by smooth-faced 
hypocrites and reckless renegades. But this is not all, 
nor is it the worst. The civil authorities of the city 
being too weak to quell the fury of the multitude, will be 
obliged to call out a military force. But whence are 
they to obtain such a force ? Those who compose the 
military would probably be engaged, on opposite sides, 
among the rioters. Yet'' let us suppose it practicable to 
obtain a military force for the purpose of restoring order. 
We shall then behold citizens with arms in their hands 
stand arrayed against those who have none. All other 
means failing to still the tumult and arrest the actors, it 
will become the painful duty of the Mayor to order the 
troops to fire into the multitude ; or if he should refrain 
from so doing, a single missive not perhaps intended for 
that purpose, provokes one of the military to fire without 
orders. Who shall paint the consequences of such an 
act ? We shrink from the anticipation. It is sufiicient 
to refer to the thousand examples under similar circum- 
stances. Who shall pretend to say that our city would 
not smoke in ashes and blood ? 

Such are the consequences likely to flow from this last 
and desperate resort of a bafl!led and twenty times defeat, 
ed traitor. And all for what ? That the Bank may 
triumph over the constitution, and money tyrannize over 
men. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 63 

THE STATE PRISON MONOPOLY. 

[From the Evening Post, Oct. 1834.] 

We are very sorry to see the opposition to the scheme 
of State Prison labour, or the State Prison Monopoly, 
as it is termed, showing itself in acts of violence, 
the effect of which must be to cool the friendship which 
men of correct principles entertain for that cause, if 
not to turn them wholly against it. We allude to the 
mutilation of edifices built of materials prepared at Sing. 
Sing Prison. A number of costly and beautiful houses 
in the upper part of the town have been defaced and 
mutilated by some misguided and unprincipled persons^ 
for no other reason that can be conjectured than that 
they were constructed of materials procured at the State 
Prison. This journal is opposed — decidedly and 
strongly opposed — to any plan of convict labour, the 
effect of which is to interfere with the prosperity of up. 
right citizen mechanics, or diminish the incentive to an 
honest and industrious pursuit of lawful vocations. But 
if any thing could induce us to withhold our assist- 
ance from the objects contemplated by those who are 
seeking to effect a radical change in the plan of prison 
labour, it would be the lawless and incendiary conduct 
to which we allude. A good cause can never need to 
be furthered by violence and outrage, and violence and 
outrage are in themselves prf77iayac?e evidence of a bad 
cause. While cut stone, or any other materials for build, 
ing, can be procured cheaper at Sing Sing Prison than 
elsewhere, it would be expecting too much of contractors 
to ask them to forego the advantage thus extended to them. 
To buy where we can buy cheapest, and sell where we 
can sell highest, is the rule of all traffic, and it is putting 
men to too hard a test when they are required to correct, 
by individual forbearance, what should be provided for by 



64 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

a general law. Besides, even if those who erect build- 
ings with materials purchased at the prison do wrong, and 
even if injury inflicted upon their private property be the 
best means of procuring redress (neither of which propo- 
sitions is tenable) still it should be borne in mind that the 
houses which they build pass into other hands, and that, in 
mutilating them, instead of injuring those whom they 
consider j ustly obnoxious to anger, the opponents of the 
State Prison Monopoly may in reality be invading the 
the means of some citizen friendly to their cause. 



THE DIVISION OF PARTIES. 

[From the Evening Post, November 4, 1834,] 
Since the organization of the Government of the 
United States the people of this country have been divi- 
ded into two great parties. One of these parties has un- 
dergone various changes of name ; the other has con- 
tinued steadfast alike to its appellation and to its princi- 
ples, and is now, as it was at first, the Democracy. 
Both parties have ever contended for the same opposite 
ends which originally caused the division — whatever 
may have been, at different times, the particular means 
which furnished the immediate subject of dispute. The 
great object of the struggles of the Democracy has been 
to confme the action of the General Government within 
the limits marked out in the Constitution: the great oh- 
ject of the party opposed to the Democracy has ever been 
to overleap those boundaries, and give to the General 
Government greater powers and a wider field for their 
exercise. The doctrine of the one party is that all pow- 
er not expressly and clearly delegated to the General 
Government, remains with the States and with the Peo- 
ple : the doctrine of the other party is that the vigour 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 



65 



and efficacy of the General Government should be 
streno-thene d by a free construction of its powers. The 
one party sees danger from the encroachments of the 
General Government ; the other affects to see danger 
from the encroachments of the States. 

This original line of separation between the two 
great political parties of the republic, though it existed 
under the old Confederation, and was distinctly marked 
in the controversy which preceded the formation and 
adoption of the present Constitution, was greatly widen- 
ed and strengthened by the project of a National Bank, 
brought forward in 1791. This was the first great ques- 
tion which occurred under the new Constitution to test 
whether the provisions of that instrument were to be in- 
terpreted according to their strict and literal meaning ; 
or whether they might be stretched to include objects 
and powers which had never been delegated to the Gen- 
eral Government, and which consequently still resided 
with the states as separate sovereignties. 

The proposition of the Bank was recommended by the 
Secretary of the Treasury on the ground that such an in- 
stitution W' ould be " of primary importance to the prosper- 
ous administration of the finances, and of the greatest 
utility in the operations connected with the support of pub- 
lic credit." This scheme, then, as now, was opposed on 
various grounds ; but the constitutional objection consti- 
tuted then, as it does at the present day, the main reason of 
the uncompromising and invincible hostility of the de- 
mocracy to the measure. They considered it as the ex- 
ercise of a very important power which had never been 
given by the states or the people to the General Govern- 
ment, and which the General Government could not 
therefore exercise without being guilty of usurpation. 
Those who contended that the Government possessed the 
power, effected their immediate object ; but the contro- 
6* 



66 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

versy still exists. And it is of no consequence to tell 
the democracy that it is now established by various pre- 
cedents, and by decisions of the Supreme Court, that 
this power is fairly incidental to certain other powers 
expressly granted ; for this is only teUing them that the 
advocates of free construction have, at times, had the 
ascendancy in the Executive and Legislative, and, at all 
times, in the Judiciary department of the Government. 
The Bank question stands now on precisely the same 
footing that it originally did ; it is now, as it was at first, 
a matter of controversy between the two great parties of 
this country — between parties as opposite as day and 
night— between parties which contend, one for the conso- 
lidation and enlargement of the powers of the General 
Government, and the other for strictly limiting that 
Government to the objects for which it was instituted, 
and to the exercise of the means with which it was en- 
trusted. The one party is for a popular Government ; 
the other for an aristocracy. The one party is compos- 
ed, in a great measure, of the farmers, mechanics, 
labourers, and other producers of the middling and low- 
er classes, (according to the common gradation by the 
scale of wealth,) and the other of the consumers, the rich, 
the proud, the privileged — of those who, if our Government 
were converted into an aristocracy, would become our 
dukes, lords, marquises and baronets. The question is 
still disputed between these two parties — it is ever a new 
question — and whether the democracy or the aristocracy 
shall succeed in the present struggle, the fight will be re. 
newed, whenever the defeated party shall be again able to 
muster strength enough to take the field. The privilege 
of self-government is one which the people will never be 
permitted to enjoy unmolested. Power and wealth are 
continually stealing from the many to the {ew. There 
is a class continually gaining ground in the community, 
who desire to monopolize the advantages of the Govern- 



WILLIAMLEGGETT. 67 

ment, to hedge themselves round with exckisive privileges, 
and elevate themselves at the expense of the great body 
of the people. These, in our society, are emphatically 
the aristocracy ; and these, with all such as their means 
of persuasion, or corruption, or intimidation, can move to 
act with them, constitute the party which are now strug- 
ling against the democracy, for the perpetuation of an 
odious and dangerous moneyed institution. 

Putting out of view, for the present, all other objections 
to the United States Bank, — that it is a monopoly, that 
it possesses enormous and overshadowing power, that it 
has been most corruptly managed, and that it is identified 
with political leaders to whom the people of the United 
States must ever be strongly opposed — the constitutional 
objection alone is an insurmountable objection to it. 

The Government of the United States is a limited 
sovereignty. The powers which it may exercise are ex- 
pressly enumerated in the Constitution. None not thus 
stated, or that are not " necessary and proper" to carry 
those which are stated into effect, can be allowed to be ex- 
ercised by it. The power to establish a bank is not ex- 
pressly given ; neither is incidental ; since it cannot be 
shown to be '' necessary" to carry the powers which 
are given, or any of them, into effect. That power can- 
not therefore be exercised without transcending the Con- 
stitutional limits. 

This is the democratic argument stated in its briefest 
form. The aristocratic argument in favour of the 
power is founded on the dangerous heresy that the Con- 
stitution says one thing, and means another. That ne- 
cessary does not mean necessary, but simply convenient, 
Bv a mode of reasoninor not looser than this it would be 
easy to prove that our Government ought to be changed 
into a Monarchy, Henry Clay crowned King, and the op- 
position members of the Senate made peers of the realm ; 



63 POLITICAL WHITINGS OF 

t 

and power, place and perquisites given to them and 
their heirs forever. 



THE CHARACTER OF THE PRESIDENT. 

[From the Evening Post, November 4, 1834] 
The Aristocracy are exceedingly anxious to divert the 
attention of the people from the chief object of their war- 
fare — the venerable and heroic old man who sits at the 
head of the Government. They protest that their efforts 
are no longer directed against General Jackson, but are 
now aimed against Martin Van Buren. But this pre- 
tence is so flimsv, that it would be almost insulting the 
sagacity of our readers to suppose they do not see 
through it. General Jackson is the object of the direst 
hatred of the Bank tories. It is his measures against 
the United States Bank which have excited them to 
such ferocious political warfare against him. It is his 
having declared the Bank to be unconstitutional, dan- 
gerous to our liberties, an oppressive burden to the great 
body of people, an aristocratic institution, hedging the 
rich round with exclusive privileges, and degrading the 
condition of the labouring poor — it is for having declar- 
ed these opinions, and acted in conformity with them, 
that General Jackson is hated by the aristocracy, and 
termed a usurper and a despot, a cut-throat and a villain. 
But when, in the course of his whole long and illustri- 
ous life, has Andrew Jackson ever shown the disposition 
to be a usurper or a despot ? Was it in New Orleans, 
when, after having saved the city from sack and pillage, 
even in spite of itself, he appeared at the Bar of the 
Court, at one and the same moment to submit to its de- 
cision and to protect it against its consequences ? Was 
it when, as the Judge was about to adjourn that Court, in 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 69 

apprehension of the just indignation of the people whom 
he had saved, the war-worn old veteran coolly exclaim- 
ed — " There is no danger here ; there shall he none. 
The 'person who protected this city from foreign invaders, 
can and will protect this Court, or die in the attempt.^' 
And the old veteran spoke the truth. The people were 
hushed, and suffered him to be fined one thousand dol- 
lars, which he paid on the spot, and for which he re- 
fused to be remunerated by the contributions of the com- 
munity. Was this acting like a despot and usurper ? 

Was he a despot, when, elected by the people to the 
office of President, he recommended an amendment to 
the Constitution, giving to the people an immediate and 
direct voice in the selection of their Chief Magistrate, 
and that he should be eligible for only one term 1 Was 
this tyranny — was this usurpation ? Was he the enemy 
of freedom, when, in the same communication to Con- 
gress he urged the passing of a law providing for the in- 
troduction of the principle of rotation in office, and secur- 
ing^ its members from the dano;ers of Executive influence 
— his own influence ! — by disqualifyng themselves from 
accepting office during the period they were elected to 
serve the people ? Was this usurpation ; or did it savour 
of a disposition to extend his prerogatives 1 

The whole life of General Jackson has been one of 
absolute uncompromising devotion to his country. He 
never was afraid of responsibility when he was in jeopar- 
dy. He did not stand mooting nice points of political 
orthodoxy, or questioning whether he was right or 
wrong, when the ravager was on her shores, and the 
knife at her bosom. He is not the man who, when he 
sees his friend, his wife, or his country, suffering vio- 
lence or injury, will stop to inquire who is to blame, be- 
fore he flies to the rescue. He thinks of saving them 
first, and in his honest delight of having succeeded, for- 



70 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

gets to ask the particulars of the quarrel. Is it any won- 
der that the honest, warm-hearted, clear-headed people 
of the United States love, and trust, and venerate this 
noble old man, whose redeemed pledges they see every 
day before them ; or that they shut their ears to the 
mingled yell of clamour that resounds from the Holy 
Alliance of discords ; the union of chemical antipathies ; 
the mixture of oil and vinegar, that compose the hetero- 
geneous party now marshalled under " old Cacafoga and 
his money bags ?" 

And now he stands at the head of the Democracy of the 
world, fighting its battles, and stemming the tide of selfish 
interest combined with unprincipled ambition. He is 
there as the leader and champion of the people, and will 
the people desert him? He is now putting their virtue 
and their patriotism to the test. He is now trying the great 
experiment whether this government is in future to rest 
on the sordid principle of gain, or the sound principles 
of a free Constitution. Every appearance demonstrates 
that the present contest is one which will inevitably de- 
cide whether the rich or the labouring classes, the few 
or the many, are to rule this wide Confederation. This 
is the great cause in which the people are now called up- 
on by every tie of interest and honour ; by their present 
possessions and their future hopes ; by the memory of 
their fathers and prospects of their children ; by grati- 
tude, by affection, by the still call of the dead, the voice of 
the past, the! present, and the future — the cry of oppress- 
eil nations looking hitherward for the result of all their 
hopes — and by every other motive that can influence the 
actions of rational intelligent men, to rally round the old 
hero, and stand by him, as he has stood by them. One 
day more will decide whether or not these solemn ap- 
peals have been addressed to them in vain. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 71' 

MONOPOLIES. 

[From the Evening Post, Novemher 20, 1834.] 
Want of time, and other demands on our space, pre- 
vented us yesterday from extending our article on the 
subject of Corporations, so as to embrace a reply to those 
points in the remarks of the Times* which seemed to us 
worthy of answer. There is indeed not much in those 
remarks which absolutely requires notice ; for, happily, 
the Times is as feeble in its arguments in favour of a 
certain class of monopolies, as it is unfortunate in the 
subject it has chosen on which to vent its malignity 
against the Evening Post. But as the question which 
that print, siding with the Courier and Enquirer, and 
echoing its heresies, has thought proper to moot, is one 
of great intrinsic importance, it may not be altogether 
without use and interest to take up its article of yester. 
day, as furnishing an occasion of some further exposition 
of the true democratic point of view in which charters of 
incorporation — the most insidious and dangerous form of 
monopoly — ought to be considered. 

The Times has favoured us with a confession of faith on 
the subject of monopolies, and if its preaching were in ac- 
cordance with its creed, there would belittle ground of dis- 
pute, for it would seem by this that there is no great differ- 
ence between us on general principles. The Times says : 
" The Post is against all monopolies — so are we. The 
Post is for Equal Rights — so are we. The Post is for 
the suppression of small notes, and a reform of our bank- 
ing system — so are we, for the last because it is needed, 
and for the first because the notes are an evil, and their 
extinction is essential to the success of one of our most 
important measures of public policy, the substitution of 

* The Times newspaper has long since ceased to exist, and there 
is not therefore any particular reason for omitting this and some 
other articles attacking that Journal. 



72 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

a specie currency. The Post is against legislating for 
the benefit of individuals, to the disadvantage or exclu- 
sion of others — so are we, and in this and on all these 
points, the party agrees with us." 

So far, so good. We shall pass by the twaddle about 
*' the party agreeing with us," which is mere harmless 
impertinence and coxcombry not worth reply. We shall 
pass by, too, the satisfactory and lucid reason stated by 
the Times for being in favour of « a reform of our banking 
system." We gather, then, from this confession of faith 
that the Times is opposed to all monopolies, is in favour 
of equal rights, believes that small bank-notes should be 
suppressed, the banking system reformed, and legislation 
for individuals, to the disadvantage or exclusion of others, 
should cease. One might naturally infer from all this 
that there is no real ground of controversy between us, 
and that, like many other disputants, we have been argu- 
ino" about nothino;. But when the Times comes to ex- 
plain itself, we find, notwithstanding the apparent agree- 
ment in our premises, that we differ very widely in our 
conclusions. It is against all monopolies in the abstract, 
but for them in the concrete. It is opposed to charters 
of incorporation in general, but advocates them in parti- 
cular. It is in short against exclusive privileges as mo- 
nopolies, but in favour of them as means of effecting 
" o-reat objects of public utility," " developing vast 
resources," " stimulating industry," and so forth, which 
is only a repetition of the stale cant which has been used, 
time out of mind, by those who desired to cheat the peo- 
ple out of their rights for their own selfish ends. 

The Times is pleased to say that we ride the doctrine 
of monopolies as a hobby. We might retort by saying 
that the Times rides it only for convenience, and just as 
it suits its purposes. It is « ride and tie " with it. One 
moment it is on horseback, pricking its ambling steed 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 73 

along ; the next it dismounts and turns him loose to graze 
on the common. For ourselves, we have only to say, 
that if opposition to monopolies, in every form and under 
every disguise, is our hobby, it is because we honestly 
believe them to be the most sly and dangerous enemies 
to the general prosperity that ever were devised by inge- 
nious cupidity. It is on this ground we have opposed 
them earnestly— it is on this ground we mean to oppose 
them, with all our ability, until the evil is arrested, or we 
become convinced that opposition is vain. 

Though the Times professes to agree with us in the 
opinion that all monopolies are infringements upon the 
equal rights of the people, and therefore at war with the 
spirit of our government and institutions, it differs widely 
with us in its definition. It separates monopolies from 
corporations, and its idea seems to be that monopolies 
must be entirely exclusive, or they are not monopolies. 
There are degrees of virtue and of vice ; there are degrees 
in every thing ; but according to the Times there are 
none in the nature and extent of monopolies. These 
consist in extremes, and have no medium. 

Among its exceptions are railroad incorporations, 
which it does not consider as belonging to the great 
family of monopolies. It acknowledges that a railroad 
may be a nionopoly — "a speculation for the profit of in- 
dividuals, not required by, nor likely to promote the pub- 
lic interest ; " but, on the other hand, to meet this case, 
it supposes another, in order to show that a railroad com- 
pany may be incorporated without creating a monopoly. 
Extreme cases are but poor arguments ; since by carrying 
any right or principle to an extreme, it may be made to 
appear vicious and unjust. But let us examine the sup- 
posititious case which the Times has manufactured to jus- 
tify its insidious advocacy of monopolies. We copy the 
whole passage : 
Vol. I.— 7 



74 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

« Suppose Grand Island to be inhabited by twenty peo- 
ple, and that their only ferry is at one end of the islands 
Suppose that they have no good road, and that they want 
a railway to transport their produce from their farms 
down to the ferry. No one of them is rich enough to 
make it, but the whole together can, provided they have 
an act of incorporation for the management of the joint 
funds, and the direction of the work. Suppose the Post 
to be the legislature, and that these twenty isolated pro- 
prietors apply for a charter : how would the Post reply? 
It would say, " there is certainly nobody concerned in 
this matter but yourselves, and the work would benefit 
you vastly, but if no one of you is wealthy enough to con- 
struct it, you must do without — you cannot have a char- 
ter, /or I oppose monopolies, and every act of incorpora- 
tion is a monopoly ! " 

This is all very smart and very convincing, and we 
only wonder that the Times did not discover that it had 
trumped up a case which has no application whatever to 
the matter in dispute. The twenty inhabitants of Grand 
Island, according to the case here put, constituted a 
complete community, having one common interest in the 
contemplated railroad, and all sharing equally in its ad- 
vantages. They are, so far as respects this question, a 
whole people, and being thus united in one common bond 
of interest, the rights of no one of them would be impair- 
ed by the whole body being incorporated for any common 
object. This supposititious act of incorporation bears a 
strong analogy to the very measure of legislation which 
we yesterday spoke of as the proper means of effecting 
those objects which are now attained by partial and une- 
qual laws. Instead of Grand Island, let us read the 
State of New-York ; and instead of an act of incorpora- 
tion for a specific purpose including the whole population, 
let us suppose a law applicable to all purposes for which 



WILLIAM LEGGETTc 75 

charters could be asked, under which any set of individu- 
als might associate, and we have at once, a remedy for 
the evils of exclusive charters — we establish a system 
under which monopolies cannot exist. 

But let us look a little closer at the railroad incorpora, 
tion which the Times wishes to bestow on the twenty 
inhabitants on Grand Island. It is within the compass 
of possibihties that the population of Grand Island, parti- 
cularly after " their resources should be developed," and 
" their industry stimulated," by an act of incorporation, 
might be increased by emigration, or in some other way. 
As the charter was conferred exclusively on the twenty 
original inhabitants, we suppose the new comers would be 
denied the benefits of the railroad, unless they paid a toll, 
or contributed an equal proportion with the original 
proprietors. Would not this railroad at once become a 
monopoly, and as such be open to all the objections to 
corporations of this kind ? 

But we are fighting shadows. Communities cannot 
be incorporated except under laws equally applicable to 
all their members ; and the idea of giving society at large 
exclusive privileges is an absurdity. A law which is 
general in its operation cannot confer exclusive privi- 
leges. The fiction of a whole community requiring an 
act of incorporation to accomplish an object of public 
utility is equally fanciful and original. 

The Times further maintains that the Evening Post 
is an enemy to every species of internal improvement, 
and that the position it has taken would exclude them al« 
together. The Post, it says, will allow no rich man 
to make a road because the Post upholds equal rights, and 
will not permit corporate bodies to do it ; of course the 
people must go without roads. Now all this is gratui- 
tons assumption both of facts and consequences. 

There is no necessity for either the rich man or the 



76 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

corporate company to make roads. The people will do 
it themselves ; their own wants and convenience will im- 
pel them ; and as their requirements and means increase, 
their modes of conveyance will advance accordingly. A 
rich man may hold all the property through which a road 
is to pass — but what of that 1 He cannot impose upon 
the people by making them pay to pass through it. The 
general law of the land points out the uniform mode of 
proceeding. He is remunerated by being paid the fair - 
amount of his injury, and taxed his full share of the ad- 
vantages derived from the improvement. There is here 
no monopoly, and there is no oppression, because every 
man's property is liable to similar contingencies. 

But in order to justify this great system of monopoly 
in disguise, it is the fashion to proclaim from the house- 
tops that communities can do nothing in their combined 
capacity, and that general laws are insufficient for nearly 
every purpose whatever. We have special laws and 
contrivances interfering with and infringing the common 
rights of individuals. We must have societies of all 
kinds, for every special purpose, and corporate bodies of 
every name and device, to do what ought not to be done, 
or what the community can well dispense with, or what 
they could as well do for themselves. Nations, states, 
and cities can do nothing now-a-days, without the agency 
of monopolies and exclusive privileges. Nor can indi- 
viduals « beneficially employ capital," unless they are 
inspired by an act of the legislature, and a prospect of 
exorbitant profits, such is " the progress of the age and 
the march of intellect." 

We need not say again that we are not an enemy of 
public improvements — such as are equally beneficial to 
the whole of that community which bears an equal pro- 
portion of the expense which they cost. But we are for 
putting such improvements on the footing of county roads 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 77 

and other municipal undertakings. The people who are 
to be exclusively benefitted may make them if they please, 
and if thev do not please thev may let it alone. In our 
opinion it is paying at too dear a rate for quick travelling 
through New-Jersey to purchase it at the price of depriv- 
ina the citizens of that state, not members of a certain 
railroad company, of the right to make another railroad 
from New-York to Philadelphia. By such a system of 
legislation, the sovereign people of a whole state are de- 
prived of their equal rights. 

But it is our custom to treat all great political subjects 
on broad and general principles, from which alone gen- 
eral conclusions can be derived. A superficial or partial 
comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of a cer- 
tain course of legislation furnishes a poor criterion from 
which to strike the balance ; because it is wholly impos- 
sible for the ripest experience, aided by the most saga- 
cious intellect to see and weigh everything connected 
with the subject of discussion. We must resort to gen- 
eral principles. 

The question between the Times and the Evening 
Post, then, is not whether an act of incorporation may 
not be passed by a legislative body from the purest mo- 
tives of public good, nor whether the public good may 
not in some instances be promoted by such an act. The 
true question is whether all history, all experience, nay, 
the very nature of man, does not support the position 
that this power of granting privileges, either wholly or 
partially exclusive, is not one that has always led, and, as 
we have thence a right to infer, will always lead, not 
only to corruption and abuse, but to either open or secret 
infringements of the sanctity of Equal Rights ? This is 
the only question worthy of a high-minded and patriotic 
politician. It is not whether the practice may not occa- 
sionally lead to public, or social, or individual benefit ; 
7* 



78 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

but whether it has not in the past been made, and whe- 
ther it will not in the future be made again, j:he fruitful 
source of those inequalities in human condition — those 
extremes of wealth and poverty, so uniformly fatal to the 
liberties of mankind. 

Our pen has been often employed, and we trust not 
wholly without effect, in pointing out and illustrating the 
evil consequences of this system of bartering away the 
reserved rights of the great mass of the community, in 
exchange for public bonusses and private douceurs, either 
direct or indirect, or in furtherance of political views. 
This system has deranged the whole organization of so- 
ciety, destroyed its equilibrium, and metamorphosed a 
government the fundamental principle of which is equal 
rights to every free citizen, to one of equal wrongs to 
every class that does not directly share in its monopo- 
lies. 

We neither wish to pull down the rich, nor to bolster 
them up by partial laws, beneficial to them alone, and 
injurious to all besides. We have repeated, again and 
again, that all we desire is, that the property of the rich 
may be placed on the same footing with the labours of the 
poor. We do not incorporate the different classes of 
tradesmen, to enable them to dictate to their employers 
the rate of their wages ; we do not incorporate the farm- 
ers to enable them to establish a price for their products; 
and why then should we incorporate moneyed men (or 
men having only their wits for a capital) with privileges 
and powers that enable them to control the value of the 
poor man's labour, and not only the products of the land, 
but even the land itself ? 

If the Times will answer these questions, we are willing 
to discuss the subject, step by step, in all its important 
relations. But if it shall continue to lay down positions 
but to explain them away, like the boy who blows a bub- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 79 

ble only for the pleasure of dissipating it by a breath, we 
shall not feel bound to pursue the subject in a controver- 
sial form. The weathercock must remain stationary for 
at least a moment, before we can tell which way the wind 
blows. The ship which, without rudder or compass, yaws 
and heaves about, the sport of every impulse of the ele- 
ments, can scarcely be followed in her devious course by 
the most skilful n-avigator. 



ASYLUM FOR INSANE PAUPERS. 

[From the Evening Post, Nov. 28.] 
We have received a copy of a circular letter on the 
subject of a recommendation made by Governor Marcy 
to the Legislature, at its last session, that an Asylum for 
Insane Paupers should be erected, at the expense of the 
State. A select committee was charged with the sub- 
ject, which reported favourably on the project ; but the 
legislature adjourned without acting upon it. We trust 
they will adjourn again without acting affirmatively on 
any such scheme. 

The taking care of the insane is no part of the business 
of the state government. The erecting of such an Asy- 
lum as is proposed, and the appointment of the various 
officers to superintend it, would be placing a good deal 
more power — where there is already too much — into the 
hands of the state executive, to be used honestly or cor- 
ruptly, for good or evil, as these qualities should happen 
to predominate in his character, or as the temptations to 
use his official patronage for his own aggrandizement or 
profit might be strong or weak. We are continually 
suffering, under one pretence or other, these pilferings of 
power from the people. 

The circular to which we have alluded appeals strongly 



80 POLITICAL WRITINGSOF 

to the sympathies of its readers. It presents a deplora- 
ble and harrowing picture of the miseries endured by in- 
sane paupers in the poor-houses of Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire, and intimates that their condition is no 
better in many counties of this state. If this is so, the 
evil ought to be investigated and remedied ; but not in 
the method proposed, by the erection of a splendid state 
Asylum. The people ought not to suffer their judgment 
to be led away by their sympathies. They cannot be too 
jealous of the exercise of unnecessary powers by the 
state government. The nearer they keep all power to 
their own hands, and the more entirely under their own 
eyes, the more secure are they in their freedom and 
equal rights. 

We would have destitute lunatics taken care of, but 
not under the charge or at the expense of the state go- 
vernment. It ought to be one of the leading objects of 
the democracy of this country for many years to come to 
diminish the power of the general and several state go- 
vernments, not to increase it. On the subject of legisla- 
tion for paupers they ought to be particularly vigilant. 
In nine cases out of ten, and we believe we might say 
ninety-nine out of a hundred, poor-laws make more pover- 
ty than they alleviate. If the reader has ever employed 
himself in tracing the history of the poor-laws in Eng- 
land, he will not require any proof of this assertion ; if 
he has not, he could scarcely turn his thoughts to a sub- 
ject more rife with matters of serious interest. 

Lunatic paupers ought certainly to be taken care of. 
Both charity and self-protection require this. But we 
would remove this guardianship as far from government 
as possible. Each county should certainly provide for 
its own ; each township would be better, and if it were 
practicable to narrow it down to the kindred of the in- 
sane persons, it would be better still. As a general rule, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 81 

all public charities, except for the single purpose of pro- 
moting education, are founded on erroneous principles, 
and do infinitely more harm than good. See that the 
people are educated, and then leave every man to take 
care of himself and of those who have a natural^claim on 
his protection. We have many large charities in this 
community, founded in the most amiable and benevolent 
motives, that annually add very largely to the sum of 
human misery, by ill-judged exertions to relieve it. 

The picture of the wretched condition of lunatic pau- 
pers, as presented in the circular before us, is certainly 
very touching, but legislators must not be blinded by 
tears to the true and permanent interests of man. They 
must let their feelings of commiseration take counsel of 
the pauser judgment. They must look at the subject in 
all its bearings and aspects, before they saddle the peo- 
ple in their collective capacity with another tax, and 
place the revenue so instituted at the disposal of an exe- 
cutive officer, who may expend it with a view to advance 
his private ends. 

We have said that the account given of the sufferings 
of these pauper lunatics is touching ; yet it would be easy 
to draw as touching a picture, and as true too, of the 
sufferings of sane paupers. Indeed, with many, what a 
horrible aggravation to their sufferings their very sanity 

must be, 

" Which but supplies a feeling to decay !" 

The lunatics are by no means the most unhappy class of 
paupers, as a class. Insanity comes to many as a friend 
in their deepest affliction, to mitigate the tortures of a 
wounded spirit — to 

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow ; 
Raze out the written troubles of the brain, 
And, with a sweet oblivious antidote, 
Cleanse the stuffed bosom of the perilous stuff 
Which weighs upon the heart. 



82 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

Those who are sick and desolate ; who have fallen from 
a high estate — fallen by their own folly, perhaps, and 
therefore experience the gnawings of remorse, or fallen 
in consequence of the ingratitude or treachery of others, 
may easily be supposed to experience keener anguish 
than the demented inmates of the same abode ; since the 
worst pain man suffers has its seat in the mind, not in the 
body ; and from that species of affliction the crazy are 
exempt. If this scheme of a grand state lunatic asylum 
should be carried into effect, we see no reason why next 
we should not have a grand state poor-house, for the re- 
ception of all paupers who had not lost their wits. Other 
large state charities would probably follow, and one abuse 
of government would step upon the heels of another. 
The system is all wrong from beginning to end. We 
are governed too much. Let the people take care of them- 
selves and of their own sick and insane, each community 
for itself. Let them, above all things, be extremely cau- 
tious in surrendering power into the hands of the govern- 
ment, of any kind, or for any purpose whatever, for go^ 
vernments never surrender power to the people. What 
they get is theirs " to have and to hold," ay, and to exer- 
cise too, to the fullest extent, nor is it often got back from 
them, till their grasp is opened with the sword. 

Our remarks are cursory and loose, perhaps, as this 
article has been written in the midst of more than usual 
interruptions. Let the reader not thence infer, however, 
that we have taken ground on this subject hastily ; for 
such is not the fact. The plan recommended by Gover- 
nor Marcy last winter, has frequently occupied our 
thoughts, and in every light in which we have viewed it 
has appeared to us to deserve the opposition of the demo- 
cratic members of the legislature. We are for giving as 
few powers to government as possible, and as small an 
amount of patronage to dispense. Let the aristocracy 



\ 

WILLIAM LEGGETT. 83 

advocate a strong government ; we are for a strong 
people, 

MONOPOLIES. 

[From the Evening Post, Nov. 29.] 
" TO THE EDITORS OF THE EVENING POST. 

" I have read attentively the views expressed in your 
paper on the subject of "monopolies," and I agree with 
you to some extent, but I am not certain that I under- 
stand how far the practical detail may interfere with the 
general principle. This may be tested by some cases in 
point. I take the first notice from the Journal of Com- 
merce, and the others from the Albany Argus. 
[^Here follow notices of applications for incorporations.] 

" You will perceive here are four distinct objects pro- 
posed to be accomplished. That the public may know 
how your theories are to be reduced to practice, I request 
that you will say how the members from this city, under 
their pledge as honourable men, are to vote on these gene- 
ral propositions ; and secondly, how you would vote as a 
legislator without any pledge. 

" AN HONEST INQUIRER." 

We have witnessed with regret, and we may add with 
surprise, that, notwithstanding the recent clearly and 
strongly expressed sentiment of the great body of the 
democracy of this state against all monopolies, of every 
kind and degree, a number of notices, like those quoted 
by our correspondent, have already appeared in the pub- 
lic papers. There can be no sort of question that one of 
the chief points which the great body of the democratic 
voters meant to decide by their suffrages in the recent 
contest, was that there should be no more monopolies 
created by our legislature. And there can be no sort of 
question either, that in the term monopoly, according to 



84 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the understanding of the democratic party, all acts of in- 
corporation were included. 

We do not mean to say that this was the universal un- 
derstanding ; and perhaps it is never the case, in a poli- 
tical contest which turns on a variety of questions, that 
the whole body of voters are governed by absolute coin- 
cidence of sentiment on every particular subject. But 
we do mean to say, and we think no one will dispute, 
that those who gave the latitude of meaning to the word 
monopoly which we have here expressed, were at least 
much more numerous than the excess of votes in favour 
of Governor Marcy over Mr. Seward ; and further, that 
had it been announced, from any authentic source, pre- 
vious to the election, that the candidates of the demo- 
cracy for legislative office would, on being elected, vote 
for any act of incorporation whatever, they never would 
have had the opportunity of imposing any such contem- 
plated additional fetters on the body politic. 

The success of the democratic ticket in a majority of 
the republican counties, was clearly owing, in our view of 
the subject, to the belief that all exclusive and partial le- 
gislation would cease, if the democracy succeeded ; that 
laws would be made for the whole people, not for a part ; 
and that the great fundamental principle of our republic, 
the equal rights of all, would be their governing rule of 
action. It is to this conviction we owe our success ; 
and if this conviction had been destroyed by the promul- 
gation of such sentiments before the election, as have 
since been expressed in certain degenerate prints, those 
who are now informed that the term monopoly applies 
only to such laws as no one ever dreamed would be pass- 
ed, and are called upon to act accordingly in the legisla- 
ture, would still have occupied a private station. 

But independent of this consideration, we hold it to be 
demonstrable, (and we think we have not fallen far short 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 85 

of demonstration in our various articles on the subject,) 
that all acts of partial legislation are undemocratic ; that 
they are subversive of the equal rights of men ; are calcu- 
lated to create artificial inequality in human condition ; 
to elevate the few and depress the many ; and, in their 
final operation, to build up a powerful aristocracy, and 
overthrow the whole frame of democratic government. 

In this view of the subject, we consider it the duty of 
every democratic legislator, however much or little he 
may consider the disputed word monopoly to compre- 
hend, to set himself firmly against every attempt to ob- 
tain new charters of incorporation, or to enlarge the term 
or conditions of old ones. Whether he thinks himself 
positively instructed or not, by the terms of his county 
resolutions, to oppose every bill of incorporation, no one 
will pretend that he has been instructed to advocate such 
a bill, and he is therefore certainly under the general 
obligation to oppose every measure of anti-democratic 
character or tendency. The man, then, who, pretending 
to represent democratic constituents, shall yet cast his 
suffrage, or exercise his influence, in favour of a single 
application for corporate powers, or shall refrain from 
exerting himself to defeat such an application, will be un- 
faithful to his trust, to his country, and to the principles 
of liberty, and will richly deserve to be held up, in the 
strongest language which indignant patriotism can use, 
to the scorn of his fellow-men. On such a gibbet we 
shall surely do all in our power to hang such a traitor, 
if any such there shall be found, which we hope and 
trust there may not. 

Is our correspondent answered ? As to the duty of our 
city delegation, there is not the slightest room for ques- 
tion. They are pledged to oppose, with all their might, 
all monopolies ; and happily the terms of the pledge have 
not left the word monopoly of dubious import. By spe- 
VoL. I.— 8 



86 POLITICAL WRITINGSOP 

cifying Insurance Corporations, which are as useful in 
their favourable features, and as Httle objectionable in 
their unfavourable, as any description of corporations 
whatever — by specifying these as one of the most ob- 
noxious kinds of monopolies, the phrase clearly embraces 
corporate institutions of every kind and name. Should, 
then, any member of our city delegation, being thus 
pledged, vote for any monopoly within the comprehensive 
signification fixed by the obligation he subscribed, he 
would not only be unfaithful to his party and to republi- 
can principles, but a fore-sworn caitiff, worse even than 
Dudley Selden, if worse can be. 

But we have no fear that the democracy of our metro- 
polis have cherished any such viper in their bosom. 
We look not to see any of our delegates seek to escape 
trom their honourable obligations through any flaw 
which the Times may try to discover in their pledge. 
We look not to see them skulk behind a quibble, or palter 
with their constituents in a double sense. We expect 
rather that they will exhibit a noble emulation in carry- 
ing into effect the spirit of that condition. We expect to 
see them all eager to identify themselves with the leading 
doctrines of the democracy in the present struggle with 
aristocratic opponents of equal liberty and laws, and each 
striving to outdo the others in the strenuousness of his 
hostility to exclusive privileges, partial legislation, or 
whatever endangers, in the slightest degree, the founda- 
tion principle of our political fabric, the equal rights of 
mankind. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 87 



MONOPOLIES. 

[From the Evening Post, Nov. 29, 1834.] 
The Journal of Commerce protests that it has not haul- 
ed down its flag, but joins its co-labourer the Times, in 
insisting we ourselves are used up. " We thought it un- 
necessary to proceed further with the discussion, because 
the whole ground had been gone over, and we believed 
the wrong doctrines of the Post sufficiently refuted." So 
says the Journal of Commerce. How complete this refu- 
tation is, our readers are qualified to judge, since we 
have placed its several articles before them, some in 
whole, and some in substance. The Journal admits that 
its " fifty dollar " argument " is just as good in relation 
to packeting as banking." It is just as good, then, in 
relation to any other business. For instance, one of the 
bubbles that accompanied the airy flight of the famous 
south-sea bubble, and exploded about the same time, 
though with less noise and devastation, was called '* the 
Spanish Jackass Company." Now, by carrying out the 
idea of the Journal of Commerce, a New-York Jackass 
Company might be incorporated, and the Editor of the 
Journal of Commerce, by buying fifty dollars' worth of 
stock, might stand a fair chance to be chosen president. 
The stock of a company of that description might be ex- 
pected to be very popular among a certain political party 
to which the Journal of Commerce, iii some measure, be- 
longs ; and it might all be taken up before one-tenth of 
the applicants were supplied. Would not the disappoint- 
ed nine-tenths, as they wended their way homeward, 
with their fifty dollars apiece in their breeches' pockets, 
have reason to exclaim that there was something partak- 
ing of the character of exclusiveness in this Jackass 
Company ? And suppose the Editor of the Journal of 



88 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

Commerce, despite his claims, should receive no appor- 
tionment of stock, would he not begin to think that there 
was some truth in the complaint against monopolies 1 

But badinage apart, we are surprised that the Journal 
of Commerce does not perceive that it makes no differ- 
ence in the principle of the thing whether the stock of an 
incorporated Company is divided into fifty dollar shares, 
or five thousand dollar shares. Of whatever amount the 
subdivisions may be, but a small portion of the commu- 
nity can receive any at the original allotment, and but a 
small portion of them could receive any, if the Journal 
of Commerce's favourite plan of selling the shares by 
auction were adopted. When the pitcher is full it will 
hold no more ; and when the shares were all apportioned 
or sold, disappointed applicants could not expect to get 
any. The corporation would then be a monopoly enjoy- 
ed by the successful applicants ; and whether their num- 
ber was five or five thousand, they would possess " exclu- 
sive privileges " nevertheless, and would be the benefi- 
ciaries of unequal legislation. 

It is an error of the Journal of Commerce to say, that 
the practical operation of corporations is to " take privi- 
leges, which would otherwise be monopolized by the rich, 
and divide them into such small parts, that every one 
who has fifty dollars may be interested, upon equal terms 
of advantage with the most wealthy." In practice, the 
operation of the thing is quite the reverse. " Kissing 
goes by favour," in those operations. Large capitalists 
get all the stock they ask for, and poor men get but a part, 
if any, that they solicit. Tiiere are published lists of 
apportionments to which we can refer the Journal of 
Commerce. But the fact is notorious. And moreover, 
it is notorious, that this pretended division of stock has 
even much less of fairness and honesty about it than 
would seem by the face of things. Many of the appli- 



WILLIAMLEGGETT. 89 

cants who get large apportionments are men of straw, 
mere catspaws, thrust forward to answer the purpose of 
some great capitahst, for whom the stock is really pro- 
cured. We could name instances, if it were necessary. 
We have not come to this subject without being furnish- 
ed with ample means of establishing our arguments. 
There is the very last bank that went into operation — 
was the stock of that incorporation divided to fifty dollar 
applicants ? Is it not, on the contrary, a fact, that a con- 
trolling interest is in the hands of a single individual, who 
is represented by his puppets — we beg their pardon, his 
proxies — in the directory 1 Nor is that bank a solitary 
instance, as the Journal of Commerce well knows. 

But if the argument were true, to the fullest extent, 
that «< fifty dollar men " can become bankers, and life- 
insurers, and packet-owners, and so on, it would still not 
be a good argument in favour of special acts of incorpo- 
ration for these several purposes ; because these special 
acts would each embrace but a small portion of the com- 
munity, and all special or partial legislation is, in its very 
nature, anti-republican and invasive of equal rights. 
Let capital and industry alone to find their own chan- 
nels. This is the true principle to act upon. If any 
additional legislation is necessary, let it be legislation 
that shall embrace the whole body politic, and every 
variety of laudable enterprise. The " fifty dollar" argu- 
ment of the Journal of Commerce might with much more 
propriety be put forward in support of a general law of 
joint stock partnerships, than in support of the everlast- 
ing iteration of special acts of incorporation, where 
every succeeding set of applicants are striving to get 
some privileges or advantages not conferred by previous 
charters, and, to effect their selfish and unjust ends, re- 
sorting to all the arts of collusion and corruption. Under 
a general law, not merely " fifty dollar men," but twenty 
8* 



90 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

dollar men, and one dollar men, might if they pleased 
place their means in the joint funds of an association to 
effect some great enterprise. Such a law would be the 
very measure to enable poor men to compete with rich. 
As it is, let the Journal of Commerce say what it may. 
acts of incorporation are chiefly procured by the rich and 
for the rich. What claims have your William Bards or 
your Nathaniel Primes on the country, that our legisla- 
ture should spend their time in making laws for their 
exclusive or particular advantage ? Did we cast our 
suffrages into the ballot-boxes to select legislative factors 
for those men, or such men ? Let them have their equal 
rio-hts, but let them have no more. 

The Journal of Commerce seems to think our reason- 
ino- involves a contradiction, because we oppose special 
acts of incorporations or monopolies, and yet would ex- 
tend incorporations indefinitely. We have not said we 
would extend corporations indefinitely : yet if corpora- 
tions were extended indefinitely, there would be no mo- 
nopoly ; since when every member of the community 
has precisely the same opportunities of employing capital 
and industry given to him by the laws which every other 
member has, there is no exclusive privilege, and no inva- 
sion of equal rights. But it is an error in terms to say 
that we advocate the indefinite extension of corporations, 
smce the very nature of a corporation, is to be endowed 
with special privileges. We shall not dispute about 
words, however, if we can bring the Journal of Com- 
merce to agree with us about principles. The act of 
incorporation, then, which we should desire to see pass- 
ed, would be an act incorporating the whole population 
of the State of New York, for every possible lawful pur- 
pose to which money or human labour, or ingenuity, is 
ever applied, with a clause admitting to a full commu- 
nion of the benefits of the body corporate, every indivi- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT, 



91 



dual who should at anv future time become a member of 
the body politic. 



MONOPOLIES. 

[From the Evening Post, November, 1834.] 
What have the People, the Democracy, been strug- 
gling for in the last election ? Was it merely to satisfy 
a personal predilection in favour of a few leaders, and to 
gratify a personal dislike to a few others : or was it for 
certain great principles, combined in the one great gen- 
eral term of Equal Rights ? As to ourselves, and we 
believe w^e speak the sentiment of a great majority of 
those who acted W'ith us, we answer unhesitatingly, not 
for men but principles ; not for Messrs. Cambreleng, 
White, Moore, Morgan, McKeon, and others, whatever 
■we mav think of them as individuals, but because thev 
have pledged themselves to the support of Equal Rights, 
and to an opposition to monopolies and exclusive privi- 
leges. 

Yet the Times in effect denies and repudiates our doc- 
trine, that every species of corporate body created for 
the purposes of gain, and gifted with privileges which 
others do not and cannot possess or exercise, is in its na- 
ture and consequences an infringement on the Equal 
Rights of the People. It advocates the system in all its 
prominent features of abuse and oppression, qualified 
indeed by certain restraints, which, being disguised in 
loose generalities, elude detection and defy argument. 
For ourselves, we have no concealments. On this sub- 
ject we have heretofore opposed, and mean hereafter to 
oppose, with the utmost exertion of our powers, every 
new addition to this already overgrown and pernicious 
system of bartering away the sovereignty of the People 



92 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

to little bodies politic, fattening on the great body, and 
are satisfied that, but for the stand we took on this great 
constitutional ground, the late triumph of democracy 
would not have been so signal — in this great city at least. 
The majority of the People echoed our sentiments ; they 
rose in their might against monopolies and exclusive 
privileges ; and if their victory is not followed up by un- 
compromising opposition to the great source of monopo- 
lies, like the citizens of Paris, they will have fought the 
"three days" for nothing, or at least nothing worth 
gaining. They will have used their exertions only to 
drive away one swarm of flies, already gorged with their 
substance, to give place to another more hungry and insa- 
tiable. Again v/e ask, if we were not fighting against 
monopolies and exclusive privileges, what were we fight- 
ing for ? 

That our readers may see the progress making in other 
portions of the Union, in this system of secret warfare 
against their Equal Rights, we lay before them an 
analysis of the privileges lately conferred on one of these 
corporate bodies in the state of Ohio. It is called a Life 
and Trust Company, and all these extensive powers are 
bartered away by the representatives of the people, under 
the specious pretext of enabling a few persons, having 
money to spare, to buy life annuities, and place their pro- 
perty in the safe keeping of a corporation ; a body with- 
out a soul ; an abstraction ; a remote circumstance ; a 
nothing tangible or responsible. In the opinion of these 
law-givers, the integrity of individuals and the general 
laws of the land are insufficient guarantees for the safety 
of property ; and nothing can secure it but the possession 
and the exercise of privileges founded on a perpetuity of 
property and a usurpation of rights. 

The powers granted by the legislature of Ohio to their 



WILLIA3I LEGGETT. 93 

most favoured bantling of legislative munificence, are as 
follows : 

1. To make insurance on lives. 

2. To grant and purchase annuities. 

3. To make any other contract involving the interest 
of money and the duration of life, 

4. To receive moneys on trust, and to lend out the same 
at such rate of interest as may he agreed on. 

5. To accept and execute all such trusts of every de- 
scription as may be committed to them by any person, or by 
by any Court of Record. 

6. To receive and hold lands under grants with general 
and special covenants, so far as may be necessary to their 
business or the payment of their debts. 

7. To buy and sell drafts and bills of exchange. 

8. To hold an original capital of 2,000,000 of dollars. 

9. To vest said capital in bonds and mortgages on real 
estate valued at double the amount of the sums loaned. 

10. To increase said capital to an indefinite extent 
by deposites at an agreed rate of interest. 

11. To issue bank notes to double the amount deposited 
— not to exceed one million of dollars. 

12. To have twenty trustees, one-fifth elected every 
two years, so that ultimately each trustee remains in ten 
years. 

Now we desire the people to look well at this delega- 
tion of their sovereignty to these twenty trustees. We 
ask them if there is any thing under heaven this corpora- 
tion cannot do, except perhaps make war and peace ; 
or any limits to its powers of accumulation ? And as if 
to cap the climax of legislative foJly or corruption, this 
corporation is permitted to coin its own money, to lend or 
to pay its annuities and the interest on its trusts. It re- 
ceives pledges on land and real property, bonds and mort- 
gages, on liens of its own paper, and charges interest for 



94 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the same, thus exchanging rags for lands and houses, at a 
premium of interest " such as may be agreed on." 

It is permitted " to increase its capital to an indefi- 
nite EXTENT by deposites at an interest agreed on." In - 
short it " can make any contract involving the interest of 
money or the duration of life,^' This pledge covers every 
species of human dealing, and may be tortured by the 
ingenuity of cupidity into including all the business of 
life. In fact there is no limit to the powers which this 
minor sovereignty may exercise, as to its means of acquir- 
ing wealth and influence. Its duration is perpetual, and 
in less than one hundred years, it will swallow up the 
whole state of Ohio. Its proprietors of land will become 
tenants at will to the Life and Trust Company, and an 
independent yeomanry sink into a race of dependant 
slaves. 

They have no remedy except a revolution ; for accord- 
ing to the famous doctrine of " vested rights," one legis- 
lative body may barter away privileges which, however 
pernicious or fatal to the liberty and prosperity of the 
great mass of citizens, can never be reclaimed by its 
successors. The mill-stone once tied about the neck of 
the people, becomes a vested right, and cannot be un- 
loosed, even to save them from drowning. If such is the 
settled principle, does it not hold up a warning to the de- 
positories of the sovereignty of the peoole, against lightly 
giving way, or bartering for some pitiful consideration, 
privileges which, however dangerous or pernicious in 
their consequences, must either be perpetual or endured 
for a certain number of years 1 If the grant is irrevo- 
cable, how careful should they be in making it ? Re- 
pentance cannot alleviate the consequences of the trans- 
gression ; legislation can make no atonement. It is the 
fiat of fate, and to strive against it, is not only vain but 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 95 

blasphemous, according to the opinion of the champions 
of legislative omnipotence. 

The people of this or any other country never contem- 
plated bestowing on their government the power to inflict 
upon them evils which no subsequent exertion of that 
power could remove. They did not bestow upon their 
legislative bodies a portion of their sovereignty, to barter 
it away in exchange for the wages of corruption, or for 
political purposes. What they gave they expected would 
be received by those to whom it was given for the special 
benefit of the great majority, and not employed in forging 
for them fetters from which no after struggle could release 
them. This practice of frittering away the powers of 
the government, in themselves, not transferable, has di- 
vested that government of a great portion of what the 
people conferred on it, and it alone. It might just as 
well delegate to a corporation the rights of declaring war 
and concluding peace, as to bestow on it the exclusive 
right of giving a national currency. The one is an act 
of sovereignty as well as the other, and cannot be dele- 
gated. 

Already we perceive the value of the privileges thus 
liberally bestowed on the Ohio Loan and Trust Company. 
It is scarcely yet in operation, and its stock is upwards 
of twenty per. cent above par. In a few years, it will in 
all probability, if managed with ordinary sagacity rise 
to one, nay, two hundred per cent. Other people are 
glad to get six or seven per cent, for their money and this 
is all the law allows them. But our legislatures make 
other laws, granting to a few what is denied to the many, 
and conferring on them the " vested right" of doubling 
their capital every few years. Not all the sophistries of 
interested cupidity, can jN'ow persuade the enlightened 
farmers and labouring classes, that such distributions of 
privileges are founded in the principles of Equal Rights. 



96 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

The time we trust is at hand, when their pernicious in- 
roads on the sanctity of individual independence will be 
arrested in their career, and that preparations must be 
made to retrace the path pursued for the last twenty or 
thirty years. The People have spoken, and they must 
be heard. For ourselves we mean to persevere in our en- 
deavours to draw public attention to this most important 
of political subjects. Not all the clamours of aristoc- 
racy, nor the treacherous attacks of pretended friends, 
shall drive us from the stand we have made in behalf of 
the Equal Rights of the People. With them we have 
made common cause, and with them we mean to stand or 
fall. 



THE MONOPOLY BANKING SYSTEM. 

[From the Evening Post, December, 1834.] 
It is a source of sincere pleasure to us to perceive that 
the attention of the people is seriously awakened to the 
subject of the Bank system, as it exists in this country. 
It seems to us quite evident that the sentiment is daily 
gaining ground that the whole system is erroneous — 
wrong in principle and productive of incalculable evils 
in its practical operation. Those who have been readers 
of the Evening Post, for the last six or eight months, 
have had this subject fully and freely discussed, not only 
in articles from our own pen, but in numerous excellent 
communications from able correspondents, and, more 
especially, in the clear, comprehensive, and unanswera- 
ble essays of Mr. Gouge, which, with the author's per- 
mission, we copied from his admirable work on Ameri- 
can Banking. Those who perused these various pro- 
ductions, with the attention which the important and 
interesting nature of the subject required, have possessed 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 97 

themselves of sufficient materials for the formation of a 
correct opinion ; and we have the satisfaction of know- 
ing that very many of our readers concur fully with us in 
the sentiments we entertain with regard to our banking 
system. 

We look upon that system as wrong in two of its 
leading principles : first, we object to it as founded on a 
species of monopoly ; and secondly, as supplying a circu- 
lating medium which rests on a basis liable to all the 
fluctuations and contingencies of commerce and trade — 
a basis which may at any time be swept away by a thou- 
sand casualties of business, and leave not a wreck behind. 
There are many other objections incident to these, some 
of which present themselves in forms which demand the 
most serious consideration. 

Our primary ground of opposition to banks as they at 
present exist is that they are a species of monopoly. 
All corporations are liable to the objection that whatever 
povv-ers or privileges are given to them, are so much taken 
from the government of the people. Though a state 
legfislature may possess a constitutional right to create 
bank incorporations, yet it seems very clear to our appre- 
hension that the doing so is an invasion of the grand 
republican principle of Equal Rights — a principle which 
lies at the bottom of our constitution, and which, in truth, 
is the corner-stone both of our national government, and 
thai; of each particular state. 

Every charter of incorporation, we have said, is, to 
some extent, either in fact or in practical operation, a 
monopoly ; for these charters invariably invest those upon 
whom they are bestowed with powers and privileges which 
are not enjoyed by the great body of the people. This 
may be done by merely combining larger amounts of 
capital than unincorporated individuals can bring into 
competition with the chartered institution ; but the end is 
Vol. I.— 9 



98 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

more frequently effected by the more palpably unjust 
process of exonerating the chartered few from liabilities 
to which the rest of the community are subject, or by 
prohibiting the unprivileged individual from entering 
into competition with the favoured creature of the law. 

When a legislative body restrains the people collec- 
tively from exercising their natural right of pursuing a 
certain branch of business, and gives to particular indi- 
viduals exclusive permission to carry on that business, 
they assuredly are guilty of a violation of the republican 
maxim of Equal Rights, which nothing but the plainest 
paramount necessity can at* all excuse. This violation 
is the more palpable, when immunities are granted to the 
few, which would not have been enjoyed by the people, 
had their natural rights never been restricted by law. In 
the case of Bank incorporations such is clearly true ; 
since those who are thus privileged are protected by their 
charters both from the competition of individuals, and 
from loss to any greater extent than the amount of capi- 
tal they may risk in the enterprise — a protection which 
would have been enjoyed by no member of the commu- 
nity, had the law left banking on the same footing with 
other mercantile pursuits. As a monopoly, then — as a 
system which grants exclusive privileges — which is at 
variance with the great fundamental doctrine of demo- 
cracy — we must oppose Bank incorporations, unless it can 
be shown that they are productive of good which greatly 
counterbalances the evil. 

A second objection to our banking system is that it is 
founded on a wrong basis — a basis that does not afford 
adequate security to the community ; since it not only 
does not protect them from loss by ignorant or fraudu- 
lent management, but not even from those constantly 
recurring commercial revulsions, which, indeed, are one 
of the evil fruits of this very system. The basis of our 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 99 

banking business is specie capital ; yet every body knows 
that the first thing a bank does, on going into operation, 
(if we suppose the whole capital to have been honestly 
paid in, which is very far from being always the case) 
is to lend out its capital ; and the profits of the institu- 
tion do not commence until, having loaned all its capital, 
it begins to loan its credit as money. No set of men 
would desire a bank charter merely to authorize them to 
lend their money capital at the common rate of interest ; 
for they would have no difficulty in doing that, without 
a charter, and without incurring the heavy expense inci- 
dent to banking business. The object of a hank charter 
is to enable those holding it to lend their credit at interest^ 
and to lend their credit too, to twice, and sometimes 
three times, the amount of their actual capital. In Re- 
turn, then, for its capital, and for the large amount of 
promissory obligations issued on the credit of that capi- 
tal, the Bank holds nothing but the liabilities of individual 
merchants and other dealers. It njust be evident thei^ 
that its capital is liable to all the fluctuations and acci- 
dents to which commercial business is exposed. Its in- 
tegrity depends upon the ability of its dealers punctually 
to discharge their obligations. Should a series of com- 
mercial disasters overwhelm those dealers, the capital of 
the Bank is lost, and the bill holder, instead of money, 
finds himself possessed of a mere worthless and broken 
promise to pay. 

Let us trace the progress of a new banking institution. 
Let us imagine a knot of speculators to have possessed 
themselves, by certain acts of collusion, bribery, and po,. 
litical management, of a bank charter ; and let us suppose 
them commencing operations under their corporate privi- 
leges. They begin by lending their capital. After that, 
if commercial business is active, and the demand for 
money urgent, they take care to put as many of theiir 



100 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

notes in circulation as possible. For awhile this does 
very well, and the Bank realizes large profits. Every- 
thing seems to flourish ; merchants extend their opera- 
tions ; they hire capacious stores, import largely from 
abroad, sell to country dealers on liberal terms, get the 
notes of those dealers discounted, and extend themselves 
still further. Others, in the meanwhile, stimulated by 
this same appearance of commercial prosperity, borrow 
money (that is notes) from the Bank, and embark in en- 
terprises of a different nature. They purcliase lots, 
build houses, set railway and canal projects on foot, and 
every thing goes on swimmingly. The demand for 
labour is abundant, property of all kinds rises in price, 
and speculators meet each other in the streets, and exult 
in their anticipated fortunes. 

But by and by things take a different turn. The ex- 
ports of the country (which furnish the true measure of 
business) are found to fall greatly short of the amount 
due abroad for foreign fabrics, and a large balance re- 
mains unpaid. The first intimation of this is the rapid 
advance in the price of foreign exchange. The bank 
now perceives that it has extended itself too far. Its 
notes, which, until now, circulated currently enough, be- 
gin to return in upon it in demand for specie ; while, at 
the same time, the merchants, whom it has been all alonff 
eager to serve, now call for increased accommodations. 
But the Bank cannot accommodate thera any longer. 
Instead of increasing its loans, it is obliged to require 
payment of those which it had previously made ; for its 
own notes are flowing in a continual stream to its coun- 
ter, and real money is demanded instead. . But real 
money it has none, as that was all lent out when it first 
went into operation. Here then a sudden check is given 
to the seeming prosperity. The merchants, unable to 
get the amount of accommodation necessary to sustain 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 101 

their operations, are forced to suspend payment. A ru- 
mour of the amount lost by the Bank in consequence of 
these failures, causes confidence in its solvency to be im- 
paired, and being threatened with a run, it resorts to a 
still more rapid curtailment. Then follows wider de- 
rangement. One commercial house after another becomes 
bankrupt, and finally the Bank itself, by these repeated 
losses forced to discontinue its business, closes its doors, 
and hands over its affairs for the benefit of its creditors. 
Who are its creditors ? Those who hold its moneys that 
is, its ^^ promises to pay.^^ On investigation it is discov- 
ered, most likely, that the whole capital of the institution 
has been absorbed by its losses. The enormous profits 
which it made during the first part of its career, had 
been regularly withdrawn by the stockholders, and the 
deluded creditor has nothing but a worthless bit of engra- 
ved paper to show for the valuable consideration which 
he parted with for what he foolishly imagined money. 

What we have here stated can hardly be called a suppo- 
sititious case — it is a true history, and there are events 
within the memory of almost every reader of which it is 
a narrative almost literally correct. 

The basis of our banking system, then, if liable to be 
thus easily dissipated, is certainly wrong. Banks should 
be established on a foundation which neither panic nor 
mismanagement, neither ignorance nor fraud, could de- 
stroy. The bill-holder should always be secure, what- 
ever might become of the stock-holder. That which is 
received as money, and which is designed to pass from 
hand to hand as such, should not be liable to change into 
worthless paper in the transition. 

A very important objection incident to the banking 
system of this country is the demoralizing effect which it 
exercises on society. It is a matter of the utmost notori- 
ety that bank charters are in frequent instances obtained 
9* 



102 POLITICAL WEITinGS OF 

by practices of the most outrageous corruption. They 
are conceived in a wild spirit of speculation ; they are 
brought into existence through the instrumentality of bri- 
bery and intrigue ; and they exercise over the community 
the most unsalutary influence, encouraging men of busi- 
ness to transcend the proper limits of credit, and foster- 
ing a general and feverish thirst for wealth, prompting 
the mind to seek it by other than the legitimate means of 
honest, patient industry, and prudent enterprise. Let 
any man who has had an opportunity of observing the 
effect of introducing a banking institution, into a quiet 
country town, on the moral character of the inhabitants, 
answer for himself if this is not true. Let any man, 
whose knowledge enables him to contrast a portion of our 
country where banks are few, with another where they 
are numerous, answer if it is not true. Let any man 
whose memory extends so far back that he can compare 
the present state of society with what it was in the time of 
our fathers, answer if it is not true. The time was when 
fraud in business was as rare — we were about to say — as 
honesty is now. The time was when a failure was a 
strange and unfrequent occurrence ; when a bankrupt 
excited the sympathy of the whole community for his 
.misfortunes, or their censure for his rashness, or their 
scorn for his dishonesty. The banking system has made 
insolvency a matter of daily occurrence. It has changed 
the meaning of words, it has altered the sense of things, 
it has revolutionized our ethical notions. Formerly, if 
a man ventured far beyond his depth in business — if he 
borrowed vast sums of money to hazard them in doubt- 
ful enterprises — if he deluded the world by a system of 
false shows and pretences, and extended his credit by 
every art and device — formerly such a man was called 
rash and dishonest, but we now speak of him as enter- 
prising and ingenious. The man whose ill-planned specu- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 103 

lations miscarry — whose airy castle of credit is suddenly 
overturned, burying hundreds of industrious mechanics 
and labourers under its ruins — such a man would once 
have been execrated ; he is now pitied ; while our cen- 
sure and contempt is transferred to those who are the vic- 
tims of his fraudful schemes. 

For its political effect, not less than moral, our bank 
system deserves to be opposed. It is essentially an aris- 
tocratic institution. It bands the wealthy together, holds 
out to them a common motive, animates them with a com- 
mon sentiment, and inflates their vanity with notions of 
superior power and greatness. The bank system is 
maintained out of the hard earnings of the poor ; and 
its operation is to degrade them in their political rights, 
as much as they are degraded in a pecuniary respect, 
by the accident of fortune. Its tendency is to give ex- 
clus-ive political, as well as exclusive money privileges to 
the rich. It is in direct opposition to the spirit of our con- 
stitution and the genius of the people. It is silently, but 
rapidly, undermining our institutions ; it falsifies our grand 
boast of political equality ; it is building up a privileged 
order, who, at no distant day, unless the whole system be 
changed, will rise in triumph on the ruins of democracy. 

Even now> how completely we are monopoly-governed ! 's^ 
how completely we are hemmed in on every side, how 
we are cabined, cribb'd, confined, by exclusive privi- 
leges ! Not a road can be opened, not a bridge can be 
built, not a canal can be dug, but a charter of exclusive 
privileges must be granted for the purpose. The sum 
and substance of our whole legislation is the granting of 
monopolies. The bargaining and trucking away char- 
tered privileges is the w^iole business of our law makers. 
The people of this great state fondly imagine that they 
govern themselves ; but they do not ! They are led about 
by the unseen but strong bands of chartered companies. 



104 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

They are fastened down by the minute but effectual fet- 
ters of banking institutions. They are governed by 
bank directors, bank stockholders, and bank minions. 
They are under the influence of a power whose name is 
Legion — they are under the influence of bank monopo- 
lies, with a host of associate and subordinate agents, the 
other incorporated companies, depending on bank assist- 
ance for their means of operation. These evil influences 
are scattered throughout our community, in every quar- 
ter of the state. They give the tone to our meetings ; 
they name our candidates for the legislature ; they se- 
cure their election ; they control them when elected. 

What then is the remedy for the evil ? Do away with 
our bad bank system ; repeal our unjust, unsalutary, un- 
democratic restraining law; and establish, in its stead, 
some law, the sole object of which shall be to provide the 
community with security against fraud. We hope, in- 
deed, to see the day when banking, like any other mer- 
cantile business will be left to regulate itself; when the 
principles of free trade will be perceived to have as much 
relation to currency as to commerce ; when the maxim 
of Let us alone will be acknowledged to be better, infi- 
nitely better, than all this political quackery of ignorant 
legislators, instigated by the grasping, monopolizing spirit 
of rapacious capitalists. This country, we hope, we 
trust, is destined to prove to mankind the truth of the 
saying, that the world is governed too much, and to prove 
it by her own successful experiment in throwing off the 
clogs and fetters with which craft and cunning have ever 
contrived to bind the mass of men. 

But to suit the present temper of the times, it would 
be easv to substitute a scheme of banking which should 
have all the advantages of the present one, and none of 
its defects. Let the restraining law be repealed ; let a 
law be substituted, requiring simply that any person enter- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 105 

ing into banking business shall be required to lodge with 
some officer designated in the law, real estate, or other 
approved security, to the full amount of the notes which 
he might desire to issue ; and to secure, that this amount 
should never be exceeded, it might be provided that each 
particular note should be authenticated by the signature 
of the comptroller, or other officer entrusted with the busi- 
ness. Another clause might state suitable provisions for 
having the securities re-appraised, from time to time, so 
that bill holders might be sure that sufficient unalienable 
property was always pledged for the redemption of the 
paper currency founded upon that basis. Banking, es- 
tablished on this foundation, would be liable to none of 
the evils arising from panic ; for each holder of a note 
would, in point of fact, hold a title-deed of property to 
the full value of its amount. It would not be liable to 
the revulsions which follow overtrading, and which every 
now and then spread such dismay and ruin through com- 
mercial communities ; for when bankers are left to 
manage their own business, each for himself, they would 
watch the course of trade, and limit their discounts ac- 
cordingly ; because if they extended them beyond the 
measure of the legitimate business of the country, they 
would be sure that their notes would return upon them in 
demand for the precious metals, thus forcing them to 
part with their profits, in order to purchase silver and 
gold to answer such demand. 

But much as we desire to see the wretched, insecure, 
and, in a political view, dangerous banking system su- 
perceded by the more honest and equal plan we have 
suggested, we would by no means be considered as the 
advocates of sudden or capricious change. All reforma- 
tions of the currency — all legislation, the tendency of 
which is to disturb the relations of value, should be slow, 
well considered and gradual. In this hasty and unpre- 



106 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

meditated article, we have glanced at the system which 
we desire may ere long take the place of the present 
one, and have rapidly adverted to some of the reasons 
which render the change desirable. But as a first step 
towards the consummation, we should wish the legisla- 
ture to do nothing more at present than restrain the issue 
of notes under five dollars, and refuse to charter any 
more banks. The people demand it, and we do not think 
that the public sentiment is in favour of any further imme- 
diate reformation. As to the prospective legislation 
which is proposed by some, we think it anti-republican 
and unwise. We would not take advantage of any pre- 
sent movement of the public mind to fasten a law upon 
the state, which public sentiment may not afterwards sus- 
tain. The same influence of public opinion which, is 
now about to lead to the long-desired ^r^i step in Bank 
reform, will be potent in carrying on the reformation to 
the desired conclusion. A good maxim, and one which 
it will be well to be governed by in this matter, is festina 
lente. 



RICH AND POOR. 

[Frojn the Evening Post of December 6, 1834.] 
The rich perceive, acknowledge, and act upon a com- 
mon interest, and why not the poor ? Yet the moment 
the latter are called upon to combine for the preservation 
of their rights, forsooth the community is in danger! 
Property is no longer secure, and life in jeopardy. This 
cant has descended to us from those times when the poor 
and labouring classes had no stake in the community, and 
no rights except such as they could acquire by force. 
But the times have changed, though the cant remains 
the same. The scrip nobility of this Republic have 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 107 

adopted towards the free people of this Republic the 
same language which the Feudal Barons and the des- 
pot who contested with them the power of oppressing the 
people, used towards their serfs and villains, as they were 
opprobiously called. 

These would-be lordlings of the Paper Dynasty, cannot 
or will not perceive, that there is some difference in the 
situation and feelings of the people of the United States, 
and those of the despotic governments of Europe. They 
forget that at this moment our people, we mean emphati- 
cally the class which labours with its own hands, is in 
possession of a greater portion of the property and intelli- 
gence of this country, ay, ten times over, than all the 
creatures of the paper credit system put together. This 
property is indeed more widely and equally distributed 
among the people than among the phantoms of the paper 
system, and so much the better. And as to their intelli- 
gence, let any man talk with them, and if he does not 
learn something it is his own fault. They are as well 
acquainted with the rights of person and property, and 
have as just a regard for them, as the most illustrious 
lordhng of the scrip nobility. And why should they 
not ? Who and what are the great majority of the weal- 
thy people of this city — we may say of this country ? 
Are they not (we say it not in disparagement, but in 
high commendation) are they not men who began the 
world comparatively poor with ordinary education and 
ordinary means 1 And what should make them so much 
wiser than their neighbours ? Is it because they live in 

better style, ride in carriages, and have more money or 

at least more credit than their poorer neighbours ? Does 
a man become wiser, stronger, or more virtuous and patri- 
otic, because he has a fine house over his head ? Does 
he love his country the better because he has a French 
cook, and a box at the opera ? Or does he grow more 



108 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

learned, logical and profound by intense study of the day- 
book, ledger, bills of exchange, bank promises, and notes 
of hand ? 

Of all the countries on the face of the earth, or that 
ever existed on the face of the earth, this is the one where 
the claims of wealth and aristocracy are the most un- 
founded, absurd and ridiculous. With no claim to he- 
reditary distinctions ; with no exclusive rights except 
what they derive from monopolies, and no power of per- 
petuating their estates in their posterity, the assumption 
of aristocratic airs and claims is supremely ridiculous. 
To-morrow they themselves may be beggars for aught 
they know, or at all events their ^children may become 
so. Their posterity in the second generation will have 
to begin the world again, and work for a living as did 
their forefathers. And yet the moment a man becomes 
rich among us, he sets up for wisdom — he despises the 
poor and ignorant — he sets up for patriotism : he is your 
only man who has a stake in the community, and there- 
fore the only one who ought to have a voice in the state. ' 
What folly is this ? And how contemptible his presump- 
tion ? He is not a whit wiser, better or more patriotic 
than when he commenced the world, a waggon driver. 
Nay not half so patriotic, for he would see his country 
disgraced a thousand times, rather than see one fall of 
the stocks, unless perhaps he had been speculating on 
such a contingency. To him a victory is only of conse- 
quence, as it raises, and a defeat only to be lamented, as 
it depresses a loan. His soul is wrapped up in a certifi- 
cate of scrip, or a Bank note. Witness the conduct of 
these pure patriots, during the late war, when they, at 
least a large proportion of them, not only withheld all 
their support from the Government, but used all their in- 
fluence to prevent others from giving their assistance. 
Yet these are the people who alone have a stake in the 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 109 

community, and of course exclusively monopolize patriot- 
ism. 

But let us ask what and where is the danger of a com- 
bination of the labouring classes in vindication of their 
political principles, or in defence of their menaced rights ? 
Have they not the right to act in concert, when their op- 
ponents act in concert 1 Nay, is it not their bounden 
duty to combine against the only enemy they have to fear 
as yet in this free country, monopoly and a great paper 
system that grinds them to the dust ? Truly this is 
strange republican doctrine, and this is a strange republi- 
can country, where men cannot unite in one common 
effort, in one common cause, without rousing the cry of 
danger to the rights of person and property. Is not this 
a government of the people, founded on the rights of the 
people, and instituted for the express object of guarding 
them against the encroachments and usurpations of 
power? And if they are not permitted the possession of 
common interest ; the exercise of a common feeling ; if 
they cannot combine to resist by constitutional means, 
these encroachments ; to what purpose were tliey declar- 
ed free to exercise the right of suffrage in the choice of 
rulers, and the making of laws ? 

And what we ask is the power against which the peo- 
pie, not only of this country, but of almost all Europe, are 
called upon to array themselves, and the encroachment 
on their rights, they are summoned to resist ? Is it not 
emphatically, the power of monopoly, and the encroach- 
ments of corporate privileges of every kind, which the 
cupidity of the rich engenders to the injury of the poor? 

It was to guard against the encroachments of power, 
the insatiate ambition of wealth that this government was 
instituted, by the people themselves. But the objects 
which call for the peculiar jealousy and watchfulness of 
the people, are not now what they once were. The cau- 
VoL. I 10 



110 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

tions of the early writers in favour of the liberties of man- 
kind, have in some measure become obsolete and inappli- 
cable. We are menaced by our old enemies, avarice and 
ambition, under a new name and form. The tyrant is 
changed from a steel-clad feudal baron, or a minor des- 
pot, at the head of thousands of ruffian followers, to a 
mighty civil gentleman, who comes mincing and bowing 
to the people with a quill behind his ear, at the head of 
countless millions of magnificent promises. He promises 
to make every body rich ; he promises to pave cities with 
gold ; and he promises to pay. In short he is made up 
of promises. He will do wonders, such as never were 
seen or heard of, provided the people will only allow him 
to make his promises, equal to silver and gold, and human 
labour, and grant him the exclusive benefits of all the 
great blessings he intends to confer on them. He is the 
sly, selfish, grasping and insatiable tyrant, the people are 
now to guard against. A concentrated money power ; 
a usurper in the disguise of a benefactor ; an agent exer- 
cising privileges which his principal never possessed ; an 
impostor who, while he affects to wear chains, is placed 
above those who are free ? a chartered libertine, that pre- 
tends to be manacled only that he may the more safely 
pick our pockets, and lord it over our rights. This is the 
enemy we are now to encounter and overcome, before we 
can expect to enjoy the substantial realities of freedom. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. Ill 

REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONERS. 

[From the Evening Post of Dec. 8, 1834.] 

In the proceedings of the Board of Assistant Aldermen, 
on Monday evening last, as reported in the morning pa- 
pers, and copied into this journal, there occurred the fol- 
lowing passage : 

« Assistant Alderman Tallmadge moved that the Board 
now take up the report of the special committee, relative 
to the relief of the surviving Revolutionary soldiers re- 
siding in the city and county of New-York. When the 
last Pension List was made out, the number amounted to 
one hundred and thirty-seven — but some, since then, had 
left the city, and others had joined the companions of 
their youth, in the cold and quiet grave, so that the num- 
ber left is less than one hundred. He ^moved that one 
hundred dollars be paid out of the city treasury on the 
1st January next, to every surviving officer and soldier 
of the revolution in the city and county of New-York, 
now receiving a pension, provided the number does not 
exceed one hundred. He accompanied it by an eloquent 
appeal, in which he showed, that while we are rejoicing 
at the victories of the revolution, we should not forget 
those in their old age who achieved them." 

Mr. Tallmadge chose, beyond all question, a very fine 
theme, for the exercise of his oratorical powers, if he pos- 
sesses any ; and if we are to believe the reporters of the 
morning papers, there is not a stupid dolt in either board 
of the city council who does not evince the eloquence of 
a Tully every time he opens his mouth, and drawls and 
stammers out a few sentences of ungrammatical gib- 
berish. Whether Assistant Alderman Tallmadge's 
oratory is of this stamp or not we do not profess 



112 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

to know, as we never had the happiness of hearing 
the gentlemen, or seeing him, or having any com- 
munion with him, direct or indirect, of any sort or 
kind whatever. We are bound to suppose, however, 
that his forensic powers are of a high order ; for we do 
not know in what way else to account for the fact that 
his wild and unjustifiable proposition should have receiv- 
ed, with a single exception, the unanimous support of 
the whole Board of Assistant Aldermen. The name of 
the man who voted in the negative ought to have been 
given. He deserves credit for his independence ; he 
deserves credit for his fidelity to his constituents ; he 
deserves credit for not suffering his common sense and 
common honesty to be swept away by the torrent of 
Assistant Alderman Tallmadge's " eloquent appeal ! " 

Let us reflect a moment what this proposition is which 
the Board of Assistant Aldermen have, with this single 
exception, unanimously adopted. Why to give away 
ten thousand dollars of the people's money to such of the 
revolutionary pensioners as reside in the city of New- 
York. Does not the plain good sense of every reader 
perceive that this is a monstrous abuse of the trust con- 
fided to our city legislators ? Did we send them to re- 
present us in the Common Council that they may squan- 
der away the city's treasures at such a lavish rate ? Is 
it any part of their duty to make New- Year's presents ? 
Have they any right under heaven to express their sym- 
pathy for the revolutionary pensioners at the city's cost ? 
If they have, where is the warrant for it? Let them 
point their fingers to the clause in the city charter which 
authorizes them to lay taxes, that they may be expended 
again in bounties, rewards and largesses, to class any of 
men whatever. 

Let no reader suppose that in making these remarks, 
we lack a proper appreciation of the eminent services 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 113 

rendered to this country, and to the cause of human lib- 
erty throughout the world, by those brave and heroic 
men who achieved our national independence. Doubt- 
less many, very many of them, entered into that contest 
with no higher motives than animate the soldier in every 
contest, for whatsoever object undertaken — whether in 
defence of liberty or to destroy it. But the glorious re- 
suit has spread a halo around all who had any share in 
achieving it, and they will go down together in history, 
to the latest hour of time, as a band of disinterested, ex- 
alted, incorruptible and invincible patriots. This is the 
light in which their sons, at least, the inheritors of their 
precious legacy of freedom, ought to view them ; and 
they never, while a single hero of that band remains, can 
be exonerated from the obligations of gratitude which 
they owe. But we would not, on that account, authorize 
any usurpation of power by our public servants, under 
the pretence of showing the gratitude of the community 
to the time-worn veterans of the revolutionary war. — 
Every man ought to be his own almoner, and not suffer 
those whom he has elected for far different purposes, to 
squander the funds of the public chest, at any rate, and 
on any object which] may seem ^to them deserving of 
sympathy. The precedent is a wrong one, and is doubly 
wrong, inasmuch as the general regard for those for 
whose benefit this stretch of power is exerted, may lead 
men to overlook the true character of the unwarrantable 
assumption. 

Let ten thousand — let fifty thousand dollars be given 
by our city to the revolutionary veterans who are closing 
their useful lives in the bosom of this community ; but let 
it be given to them without an infringement of those sa- 
cred rights which they battled to estabUsh. If the public 
feeling would authorize such a donation as Mr. Tall- 
madge exerted his " eloquence " in support of, that same 
10* 



114 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

feeling would prompt our citizens, each man for himself, 
to make a personal contribution towards a fund which 
should properly and nobly speak the gratitude of New- 
York towards the venerable patriots among them. But 
the tax-payer, who would liberally contribute to such an 
object, in a proper way, may very naturally object to Mr. 
Tallmadge thrusting his hand into his pocket, and forc- 
ing him to give for what and to whom that eloquent gen- 
tleman pleases. If the city owes an unliquidated 
amount, not of gratitude, but of money, to the revolution, 
ary pensioners, let it be paid by the Common Council, 
and let Mr. Tallmadge be as eloquent as he pleases, or as 
he can be, in support of the appropriation. But beyond 
taking care of our persons and our property, the func- 
tions neither of our city government, nor of our state 
government, nor of our national government, extend. 
We hope to see the day when the people will jealously 
watch and indignantly punish every violation of this 
principle. 

That what we have here written does not proceed 
from any motive other than that we have stated, we 
trust we need not assure our readers. That, above all, 
it does not proceed from any unkindness towards the re- 
maining heroes of the revolution, must be very evident to 
all such as have any knowledge of the personal relations 
of the writer. Among those who would receive the bene- 
fit of Mr. Tallmadge's scheme is the venerable parent of 
him whose opinions are here expressed. That parent, 
after a youth devoted to the service of his country, after 
a long life of unblemished honour, now, in the twilight of 
his age, and bending under the burden of fourscore 
years, is indebted to the tardy justice of his Government 
for much of the little light that cheers the evening of his 
eventful day. Wanting indeed should we be, therefore, 
in every sentiment of filial duty and love, if we could 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 115 

oppose this plan of a public donation, for any other than 
public and sufficient reasons. But viewing it as an at- 
tempt to exercise a power which the people never meant 
to confer upon their servants, we should be wanting in 
those qualities of which this donation is intended to ex- 
press the sense of the community, if we did not oppose 
it. We trust the resolution will not pass the upper 
Board. 



PROTECTION OF COMMERCIAL INTERESTS. 

[From the Evening Post, Dec. 12, 1834.] 
The resolution offered by Mr. Morgan, in the House 
of Representatives on Tuesday last, instructing the 
Committee on Commerce to inquire into the expediency 
of obliging all masters of vessels trading south of the 
equator to take at least two apprentices with them, does 
not embrace a sufficiently extensive range of inquiry. 
Ought not that Committee, or other appropriate ones, 
standing or special, to inquire into the expediency of 
obliging all shipwrights to have a certain number of ap- 
prentices, " as a means of benefitting the commercial in- 
terests of the United States ?" The art of ship-building 
is certainly a very important one to our commercial in- 
terests, quite as much so as the art of navigating the 
southern ocean and catching whales and seals. Then 
again, there is the rope-making business, which is also 
important. If that art should be lost, our " commercial 
interests" would cut but a sorry figure. Ought we not, 
therefore, to guard against so great a calamity, oblio-e 
ropemakers to educate a certain number of apprentices ? 
We should have few sailors if we had no ropes. The 
raising of hemp, and the manufacture of canvass, are 
both important to our " commercial interests." Con- 



116 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

gress had perhaps better look out that the race of hemp- 
raisers and canvass manufacturers do not become extinct 
by timely passing a law obliging all now engaged in 
these pursuits to take apprentices ; for we never heard 
of but one ship that could lie upon a wind and make 
headway without canvass, and there is not likely to be 
another, unless, indeed, steam might supply the place of 
canvass ; and then the law would only have to be modi- 
fied so as to transfer the apprentices over to the steam 
engineer. If Mr. Morgan begins upon this forcing sys- 
tem, and is for doing everything by legislation, he must 
not stop at south sea ship apprentices. A wide field is 
open before him. When he comes to expatiate at large 
in it, however, he may chance to discover that he has 
started on a wrong principle, — that the old notions of 
government bounty, protection, prohibition and coercion 
in matters of trade, are totally exploded by the wisest 
men and deepest thinkers of the age, — that mankind 
have discovered at last that they are "governed too 
much ; — and that the true democratic principle, and 
the true principle of political economy, is "Let us alone." 
It may be proper to add that we do not mean, by our 
ironical mode of allusion to the subject, the slightest dis- 
respect to Mr. Morgan, for whose character we entertain 
great regard. 



THE FRENCH TREATY— PRESIDENT'S 

MESSAGE. 

[Fro7n Ihe Evening Post, December 15, 1834.] 
We have heretofore remarked that a great number of 
the opposition prints, including some most distinguished 
for the bitterness of their hostility to the present Admin- 
istration, fully approve of that portion of the President's 
message which relates to France. All of them, without 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 117 

exception, so far as we have observed, admit that his 
statement of the question at issue between the two gov- 
ernments is exceedingly lucid and accurate, and that the 
conduct of France deserves all the reprehension it has re- 
ceived. But constrained, either by the force of habit, or 
the force of political malignity, to oppose the Executive 
at all hazards and on all subjects, there are many prints 
that assail his proposed measure of reprisals with a bitter- 
ness which could hardly be exceeded if France w^re 
wholly in the right, and the mere suggestion of a course 
by no means belligerant were an actual declaration of 
war. The spectacle of so considerable a portion of the 
press of a free and enlightened country attacking the 
Chief Magistrate with the utmost vindictiveness, for 
simply recommending measures which he deems called 
for alike by regard for the long-deferred rights of plun- 
dered citizens, and by the claims of national honour, 
would create emotions of a painful kind, had not our vo- 
cation long since accustomed us to see partisan writers 
lose all sense of patriotism in the engrossing sentiment 
of hostility to the exalted man " who has filled the mea- 
sure of his country's oflorv." As it is, we view the offer- 
vescence of their rancour with a feeling near akin to in- 
difference ; and indeed it is an employment not wholly 
without amusement to watch the straits to which they 
are reduced, in order to give some colour of reason to 
the violent invectives they pour out upon General Jack- 
son's head. 

One tribe of opponents, determined to consider the 
suggested measure of reprisals as tantamount to a declar- 
ation of war, straightway fall to counting the costs, and 
graduate the wickedness of the proposal by a scale of 
dollars and cents. These ready reckoners, with a facility 
of calculation surpassing that of Zerah Colburn, have 
ascertained the exact expense of war, which they set 



118 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

down at fifty millions of dollars ; and hereupon they rail 
at the President for his enormous profligacy in proposing 
to spend fifty millions for the recovery of five ! France, 
they acknowledge, has treated us very badly. Our na- 
tional forbearance, they are obliged to confess, has been 
shown in an exemplary degree, throughout the whole 
course of a most protracted and perplexing negotiation ; 
and when that negotiation at last terminated in a treaty, 
by which the spoiler of our commerce and the plunderer 
of our citizens agreed to pay us back simply the amount 
rifled from us many years before, and not even that 
amount without the concession, on our part, of commer- 
cial advantages which she had no right to claim, they 
admit that to violate such a treaty, in the face of all the 
honourable obligations which can bind one nation to keep 
faith with another, is a degree of perfidy that it would be 
difficult to characterise by too strong a terra. But fifty 
millions of dollars ! — there is the rub. The phantom of 
that large sum of money haunts their imaginations and 
appals their understanding ! To spend fifty millions to 
coerce France into the payment of one tenth of that 
sum is a proceeding for which they can find no rule in 
their political arithmetic. If we could compel France to 
pay us the debt at an expense of two or three millions, so 
that we might pocket one or two millions by the opera- 
tion, these patriotic journals would applaud the undertak- 
ing. If we could make money by fighting, they would 
be the first to cry havoc ! and let slip the dogs of war. 
But the idea of throwing money away for the mere 
" bubble reputation," seems to them exceedingly prepos- 
terous. National honour is a phrase to which they can 
attach no import by itself; it must be accompanied by 
the expression, national profit, to give it any significancy 
in their eyes. 

We should like to know what opinion these worthies 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 119 

entertain of the conduct of those men who " plunged this 
country in all the horrors of war" on account of a pre- 
amble, to use Mr. Webster's explanation of the matter. 
We allude to the authors of our revolution. It has never 
been supposed that they counted on making a great deal 
of money by the enterprise. They pledged their lives, 
their fortunes and their sacred honour on the issue — and 
life and fortune many of them forfeited ; but none of 
them their honour ! They entered into that contest ex- 
pecting to endure great hardships, to make great sacri- 
fices, to expend vast treasures, and for what ? Not for the 
purposes of acquiring fifty millions of dollars from Eng- 
land, or five millions ; but for the simple acknowledgment 
of an abstract principle. It was enough for them that the 
principle of liberty was invaded. They did not wait 
until the consequences of the aggression should call for 
resistance. They thought, as Mr. Webster has truly and 
eloquently represented (though for an unhallowed pur- 
pose !) that " whether the consequences be prejudicial or 
not, if there be an illegal exercise of power, it is to be 
resisted." 

" We are not to wait" (let us borrow the language of 
a man whose words have the weight of law with the 
opponents of the President) " till great public mischiefs 
come ; till the government is overthrown ; or liberty 
itself put in extreme jeopardy. We should not be worthy 
sons of our fathers, were we so to regard great questions 
affecting the general freedom. Those fathers accom- 
plished the Revolution on a strict question of principle. 
The Parliament of Great Britain asserted a right to tax 
the colonies in all cases whatsoever, and it was precisely 
on this question that they made the Revolution turn. 
The amount of taxation was trifling, but the claim itself 
was inconsistent with liberty ; and that was, in their eyes 
enough. It was against the recital of an act of Parlia- 



120 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

ment, rather than against any suffering under its en- 
actments, that they took up arms. They went to war 
against a preamble. They fought seven years against 
a declaration. They poured out their treasures and 
their blood like water, in a contest, in opposition to an 
assertion, which those less sagacious, and not so well 
schooled in the principles of civil liberty, would have re- 
garded as barren phraseology, or mere parade of words. 
On this question of principle, while actual suffering was 
yet afar off, they raised their flag against a power to 
which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, 
Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared ; 
a Power which has dotted over the surface of the whole 
globe with her possessions and military posts ; whose 
morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping com- 
pany with the hours, circles the earth daily with one 
continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of 
England." 

Such was the cause for which our fathers fought, and 
such the power with which they battled. They were of 
that metal that on a question of honour or right they did 
not stop to count the cost. Their minds were thoroughly 
imbued with the sentiment, that 

Rightly to be great 
Is, not to stir without great argument, 
But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, 
Where honour's at the stake. 

A portion of their descendants seem to be animated 
with very different principles. Those who but recently 
were ready for civil broil, who proclaimed that we were 
on the eve of a revolution, and on questions which in- 
volved mere difference of political opinion — questions 
which the peaceful weapon of suffrage was fully adequate 
to decide,— now start back with well-painted horror from 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 121 

the prospect of strife with a foreign nation, which, after 
having despoiled our citizens, and trifled with our gov- 
ernment, tln'ough long years of patient intercession, has 
at last capped the climax of indignity by the grossest in- 
sult which can be offered to a sovereign people ; namely, 
by the causeless violation of a solemn international pact. 
But it is discovered that a war with that nation would be 
attended with expense, and therefore it ought not to be 
undertaken ! Money, according to these journals, is of 
more value than honour. Let a foreign nation tread on 
you and spit on you, and bear it meekly, if it will cost 
you money to avenge the insult ! Such at least is the 
precept to be inferred from their remarks. 

It is for the purpose of enforcing this precept, we pre- 
sume, that the public have been treated, in various jour- 
nals, with highly coloured pictures of the evils of war. 
Our merchants have been represented as prostrated, our 
ships rotting at the wharves, our shores lighted with con- 
flagrations, and the ocean incarnadined with slaughter. 
The tears of widows have streamed through the pens of 
these pathetic gentlemen, and the cries of orphans have 
been heard in the clatter of their presses. Pirates and 
marauders infest every line they write, and the thunders 
of a naval conflict roar in every paragraph. It is fortu- 
nate, however, that the reader can turn from these dis- 
mal forebodings to the sober pages of history, and learn 
how far the truth, in relation to the past, sustains these 
fancy sketches of the future. What is the fact ? We 
have passed through two wars with the most formidable 
power on earth, and yet survive, to prove to France, by 
force of arms, if it should be necessary, that while we 
ask nothing that is not clearly right, we will submit to 
nothing that is wrong. 

But this extremity will not be necessary. France has 
trifled with us, but she will repair the wrong. Should 
Vol. I.— 11 



122 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

she not — should she, through the duplicity of her king, 
or the misapprehension of her deputies, or wilful slight, 
or any other cause, persist in denying us our right, we 
even yet propose to pursue only the mildest and most paci- 
fic course. The nature of reprisals is too clearly establish- 
ed to need newspaper elucidation. It is unnecessary to load 
our columns with extracts from Grotius or PufTendorf, from 
Burlemaqui or Vattel, for the laws of nations rest on the 
plain principles of equity ; and what can be more obvi- 
ously just than our right to detain the property of France 
for the purpose of defraying her acknowledged debt, 
should she adhere to her strange refusal to comply with 
her own promise of payment ] Such seizure and de- 
tention of property affords a nation no ground for war ; 
any more than an individual, whose property has been 
taken by due course of law to satisfy his debts, is fur- 
nished by that proceeding with a justification for murder. 
They, therefore, who treat the proposed measure of re- 
prisals as equivalent to a declaration of war, do great in- 
justice to the character of France ; as if that nation 
were governed by so unfriendly a feeling towards this 
young republic, that she would eagerly seize any pretext 
to fight with us, though all the world must perceive that 
our Government has claimed nothing but its rights. 

That the conduct of France will be so contrary to that 
liberal spirit which animates her people we can not be- 
lieve, and shall not, till some stronger evidence is afibrded 
than the predictions of those who are even eager to for- 
tell " war, pestilence, and famine " as the necessary con- 
sequences of the administration of a man who has done 
more to elevate our character abroad, promote our prosper, 
ity at home, and revive and secure the great principle of 
equal liberty than any other man that ever lived in the tide 
of time. But if war must come of our asserting our rights, 
let it come ! Much as we should regret, on various ac- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 123 

counts, any collision with France, we would not avoid 
strife even with that country at the expense of national 
honour or justice. We are prepared for any event. 
True, certain members of Congress exclaimed withjaffect- 
ed horror, "What! plunge into war with an empty 
treasury !" But heaven grant that we may never have 
a full treasury. We desire to see no surplus revenue at 
the disposal of the Government, to be squandered in vast 
schemes of internal improvements, or prove an apple of 
discord to rouse the jealousy and enmity of different sec- 
tions of the country. If we have not the money in the 
treasury, we have it in the pockets of the people. Our 
wide and fruitful territory is loaded with abundance. 
Plenty smiles in every nook and corner of the land. 
The voice of thanksgiving ascends to heaven from the 
grateful hearts of millions of happy freemen. Our Go- 
vernment owes not one dollar of public debt, and its cre- 
dit is unbounded, for its basis is the affections of the peo- 
ple, and its resources are coextensive with their wealth. 
Let it become necssary again for that Government to 
maintain its honour at the hazard of war, though it 
should even be " against a preamble," and we shall again 
find that a people thoroughly imbued with the principle 
of liberty are ever ready to pledge their lives, their for- 
tunes, and their sacred honour in support of such a 
quarrel. 

But another objection is found to the Presidenets pro- 
posal, that it will build up a national debt. A national 
debt is certainly a national evil ; but it is not the worst 
evil that can befal a nation. And the argument that we 
should waive on just claims for indemnity from France, 
rather than incur the hazard of debt, comes with an ill 
grace from that party of which it has always been a 
leading maxim that a national debt is a blessing instead 
of a curse. This sentiment is entwined with the very 
heartstrings of aristocracy — if, indeed, aristocracy has a 



124 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

heart. Its doctrine has always been that a pubUc debt 
gives soUdity to the Government, creates in the bosoms 
of a vast number of people a strong peisonal interest in 
its welfare, consolidates in its favour all the moneyed in- 
fluence of the country, strengthens its power, and gives 
permanence to its duration. For the disciples of this 
school now to cry out against measures which involve 
the possibility of war, because war would create a public 
debt, is a degree of hypocrisy and inconsistency which 
scarcely deserves reply. 

There is another ground of objection which strikes us 
as equally preposterous. They deprecate war lest the 
power of conducting it should fall into the hands of Gen- 
eral Jackson ! And into whose hands, in the name of 
common sense and common honesty, could such a power 
be so wisely and advantageously entrusted ? Why, the 
whole sum and substance of the opposition clamour 
against the Chief Magistrate, has been on the ground that 
he is a Military Chieftain — that he was qualified to rule 
in the camp or battle-field, but was too dictatorial to pre- 
side over the peaceful councils of the nation. His talents 
as a soldier have never been disputed. His sagacity, 
bravery, alertness, energy are qualities notorious to the 
world. What ! the war power not to be trusted into the 
hands of Andrew Jackson ! a soldier almost from his cra- 
dle ; a champion who has contended alike against the 
native savages of our forest and the most disciplined 
troops of Europe ; who has encountered all sort of foes, 
and always with success. What, not trust the war-power 
with the Hero of New-Orleans ? Put up with a gross 
affront from France, rather than confide our quarrel to a 
a man who, of all men living, is best entitled to the confi- 
dence of the people, best qualified to conduct the strife to 
a prosperous result ! Nothing can exceed the utter ab- 
surdity of this objection. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 125 

But let it not be lost sight of that all the objections to 
the suggestions of General Jackson relative to our rela- 
tions with France, are founded on false assumptions. 
No "war power," no "discretionary power" is asked. 
No proposition of a belligerant kind is offered. No me- 
nace is held out. His allusions to France are in the 
kindest and most conciliatory spirit, and the most lively 
regret is manifested that the failure of that country to 
perform its solemn covenant has forced upon the Chief 
Magistrate of this the necessity of adverting to the mea- 
sures which may become necessary, in case she should 
show no disposition to redeem her violated faith. The 
spirit of General Jackson's message is the spirit which 
we trust this Government will always display to the Go- 
vernments of other nations. It is neither dictatorial nor 
submissive ; neither boisterous nor wheedling. Calm, 
temperate, firm, it affords to France no excuse for resent- 
ment, and will command the respect and admiration of 
other foreign nations. We wish that journalists, who, be- 
neath all the scum and crust of party prejudices and pas- 
sions have the true interest and glory of their country at 
heart, would adopt a similar tone — 

" Let us appear not rash nor diffident : 
Immoderate valonr swells into a fault, 
And fear admitted into public counsels, 
Betrays like treason : let us shun them both." 



UTOPIA— SIR THOMAS MORE— JACK CADE. 

[From the Evening Post, December 18, 1834.] 

Not many days ago we placed before our readers some 

pregnant reasons for thinking that the epithet of Utopian^ 

which has been applied to the doctrines advanced by 

this journal on the subject of corporations and other cog- 

11* 



126 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

nate matters, is not, after all, the worst name with which 
the efforts of a zealous advocate of equal rights may be 
branded by the aristocratic enemies of that principle. 
We showed that the word is derived from the title of a 
speculative work, written by a man of great powers of 
mind, great purity of life, and great love for the best inte- 
rests of his fellow-men. Those who are familiar with 
the history of Sir Thomas More cannot but admire his 
character. He was a man whose doctrines and whose 
life were coincident. His very first public act was to 
place himself in prominent and uncompromising opposi- 
tion to the rapacious demands of a powerful monarch, 
though by doing so he brought down on his own parent 
the most rigorous punishment that unbridled tyranny 
dared to inflict. He subsequently, with equal boldness 
and integrity, incurred the resentment of the haughty 
Wolsey, by strenuously opposing his oppressive mea- 
sures. Again, when afterwards elevated, under the im- 
perious and licentious Henry the Eighth, to the office of 
Lord Chancellor of England, he relinquished the seats 
and retired from that high station, provoking the lasting 
enmity of the king, rather than consent to his divorce 
from Catharine of Arragon. And finally, persecuted by 
the vindictive monarch under various pretences, he at 
length yielded up his life on the scaffold, preferring death 
to violating the dictates of his conscience. 

Such was the man whose admirable work on Govern- 
ments, veiled under a thin disguise of fiction, has given to 
the language a word, which monarchical and aristocratic 
writers are fond of bandying as expressive of the wildest 
dreams of visionaries and lunatics. Whether the produc- 
tion deserves such a character from republicans, let those 
judge who are acquainted with its contents, or who pe- 
rused the extracts which we placed before our readers. It 
is a work replete with political truth and wisdom. Many 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 127 

of its doctrines have since been adopted by the wisest 
statesmen ; many of them have a conspicuous place in 
the democratic theory of our Government ; and many 
others are destined yet to force their way, in spite of the 
opposition of aristocratic selfishness and pride, not only 
in this young republic, but in the king-governed nations 
of the old world. 

Reason there is that despots and the parasites of despots 
should treat such views as the impracticable theories of 
dreamers and enthusiasts. But in this country, blessed 
with freedom above all others ; blessed with a Govern- 
-ment founded on the broad basis of Equal Rights ; in this 
country, where the people are the sole source of power, 
and their equal good its sole legitimate object ; where 
there are neither lords nor serfs, masters nor bondmen, but 
where rich and poor, learned and unlearned, proud and 
humble, move and mingle on one unvarying plane of po- 
litical equality — in this country we ought to reject the 
prejudices and cant of other lands, and think, and reason, 
and act for ourselves. 

That all the views of Sir Thomas More are practicable 
we by no means contend ; and strange indeed would it 
have been if one living at his time, and under such a 
constitution of society, could so far have outsoared man- 
kind, as to prefigure a government in all respects adapted 
to the rights, wants and capacities of man in a state of ab- 
solute political and religious freedom. But if his theory 
of Government is not in all respects sound, it is at least 
full of important truths ; and the aristocratic abuses 
which prompted his meditations are accurately and vi- 
vidly delineated, as are the hydra evils, political and so- 
cial, of which they constitute the prolific source. 

The lesson which his work teaches, then, is highly im- 
portant, if no other than to guard with sleepless vigilance 
the great palladium of freedom, the principle of equal 



128 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

rights ; to guard it against the first insidious approaches 
of that spirit which is ever seeking to subject the many 
to the will of the few ; which comes with professions of 
zeal for the public good on its lips, and with its heart top- 
ful of schemes of self-aggrandizement and ambition. Let 
the people examine well into the true designs of those 
who betray this suspicious ardour of philantropy, caring 
all for the public, and nothing for themselves. When 
they hear the oft-repeated cant about "stimulating the 
industry of the country," " developing its vast resources," 
and the like, let them inquire how much this stimu- 
lus is to cost, and let them remember, if it is to be pur- 
chased by the surrender of one jot or tittle of their equal 
privileges, the price is infinitely too dear. These are the 
sentiments which they will derive from a perusal of Sir 
Thomas More's excellent work, and let them not fear to 
entertain and act upon these sentiments, though by do- 
ing so they should incur from the aristocracy the epithet 
of Utopian. 

But the opponents of the doctrines we advocate, as if 
calling names were a certain method of overthrowing our 
aro-uments, are not content with stigmatizing our views 
as Utopian, but bestow the appellation of Jack Cade 
upon ourselves. Thus an article in the Courier and En- 
quirer of this morning, after grossly misstating the objects 
for which we contend, and indulging in much groundless 
abuse, at last closes with what the writer may have sup- 
posed the very climax of invective, by designating us as 
i'the Jack Cade of the Evening Post." 

Here again we see the readiness of our opponents to 
adopt the aristocratic cant of those countries, the Govern- 
ments of which repudiate the principle of equal liberty, 
and exert their powers to concentrate all wealth and pri- 
vilege in the hands of a few. It is heart-sickening to see 
men, citizens of this free republic and partakers of its 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 129 

equal blessings, thus assume without examination, and 
use without scruple, as terms of reproach, the epithets 
with which lying historians and panders to royalty have 
branded those, whose only crime was their opposing, with 
noble ardour and courage, the usurpations of tyranny, 
and setting themselves up as assertors of the natural and 
inalienable rights of their oppressed fellow-men. 

Have the editors who use the name of Cade as a word 
of scorn looked into the history of that heroic man ? 
Have they sifted out, from the mass of prejudice, bigotry 
and servility, which load the pages of the old chroniclers, 
the facts in relation to his extraordinary career ? Have 
they acquainted themselves with the oppressions of the 
times ; the lawless violence of the nobles ; the folly and 
rapacity of the monarch ; the extortion and cruelty of his 
ministers ; and the general contempt which was mani- 
fested for the plainest and dearest rights of humanity ? 
Have they consulted the pages of Stow, and Hall, and 
Hollingshed, who, parasites of royalty as they were, and 
careful to exclude from their chronicles whatever might 
grate harshly on the delicate ears of the privileged orders, 
have yet not been able to conceal the justice of the cause 
for which Cade contended, the moderation of his demands, 
or the extraordinary forbearance of his conduct ? Have 
they looked into these matters for themselves, and divest- 
ing the statements of the gloss of prejudice and servility, 
judged of the man by a simple reference to the facts of 
his conduct, and the nature and strength of his motives ? 
Or have they been content to learn his character from 
the scenes of a play, or the pages of that king-worshipper, 
that pimp and pander to aristocracy, the tory Hume, who 
was ever ready to lick absurd pomp, and give a name of 
infamy to any valiant spirit that had the courage and 
true nobleness to stand forward in defence of the rights 
of his fellow-men ? 



130 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

Let those who use the name of Cade as a term of re- 
proach remember that the obloquy which blackens his 
memory flowed from the same slanderous pens that de- 
nounced as rebels and traitors, and with terms of equal 
bitterness, though not of equal contumely, the Hampdens 
and Sydneys of England — glorious apostles and martyrs 
in the cause of civil liberty ! Let them remember, too, 
that, as the philosophic Mackintosh observes, all we know 
of Cade is through his enemies — a fact which of itself 
would impress a just and inquiring mind with the necessi- 
ty of examination for itself, before adopting the current 
slang of the aristocracy of Great Britain. 

The very name of Jack Cade, if we take the pains to 
look into contemporary historians, is but a nick-name 
conferred upon the leader of the Kentish insurrection, in 
oi'der to increase the obloquy with which it was the policy 
of Henry the Sixth and his licentious nobles to load the 
memory of that heroic and treacherously-murdered man. 
But whatever was his name or origin, and whatever 
might have been his private motives and character, if we 
judge of him by the authentic facts of history alone, we 
shall find nothing that does not entitle him to the admira- 
tion of men who set a true value on liberty, and revere 
those who peril their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred 
honour to achieve it from the grasp of tyrants, or defend 
it against their encroachments. Nothing can exceed the 
grossness of the oppressions under which the people la- 
boured when Cade took up arms. Nothing can exceed 
the arbitrary violence with which their property was 
wrested from their hands, or the ignominious punishments 
which were causelessly inflicted on their persons. The 
kingdom was out of joint. An imbecile and rapacious 
monarch on the throne ; a band of licentious and factious 
nobles around him ; a parliament ready to impose any 
exactions on the commons ; and all the minor offices of 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 131 

Government filled with a species of freebooters, who 
deemed the possession of the people their lawful prey — in 
such a state of things, the burdens under which the great 
mass of Englishmen laboured must have been severe in 
the extreme. 

If Cade was the wretched fanatic which it has pleased 
the greatest dramatic genius of the world (borrowing his 
idea of that noble rebel from old Hollingshed) to repre- 
sent him, how did it happen that twenty thousand men 
flocked to his standard the moment it was unfurled? 
How did it happen that his statement of grievances was 
so true, and his demands for redress so moderate, that, 
even according to Hume himself, " the Council, observing 
that nobody was willing to fight against men so reason- 
able in their pretensions, carried the King for safety to 
Kenilworth ? " How did it happen, as related by Fabian, 
that the duke of Buckingham and the archbishop of Can. 
terbury being sent to negotiate with him, were obliged to 
acknowledge that they found him " right discrete in his 
answers ; howbeit they could not cause him to lay down 
his people, and to submit him (unconditionally) unto the 
king's grace." But we need not depend upon the opinions 
of historians for the reasonableness of his demands. Hol- 
lingshed has recorded his list of grievances and stipula- 
tions of redress ; and let those who think the term Jack 
Cade synonymous with ignorant and ferocious rebel and 
traitor, examine it ; let them compare it with the griev- 
ances which led our fathers to take up arms against their 
mother country, nor lay them down until they achieved 
a total separation ; let them look at it in reference to 
what would be their own feelings under a tithe part of 
the wrongs ; and, our life on it, they will pause before 
they again use the word in such a sense. Nay more : 
let them follow Cade through his whole career ; let them 
behold him in the midst of insurrection, checking the 



132 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

natural fierceness of his followers, restraining their pas- 
sions, and compelling them by the severest orders to res- 
pect private property ; see him withdrawing his forces 
each night from London, when he had taken possession 
of that city, that its inhabitants might sleep without fear 
or molestation ; mark him continually endeavouring to 
fix the attention of the people solely on those great ends 
of public right and justice for which alone he had placed 
himself in arms against his king : let them look at Cade 
in these points of view, and we think their unfounded 
prejudices will speedily give way to very different senti- 
ments. 

Follow him to the close of his career ; see him deserted 
by his followers, under a general but deceitful promise of 
pardon from the Government ; trace him afterwards a 
fugitive through the country with a reward set upon his 
head, in violation of the edict which but a few days be- 
fore had dissolved him of the crime of rebellion on condi- 
tion of laying down his arms ; behold him at last en- 
trapped by a wretch and basely murdered ; weigh his 
whole character as exhibited by all the prominent traits 
of his life and fortune, remembering too that all you know 
of him is from those who dipped their pens in ink only to 
blacken his name ! and you will at last be forced to ac- 
knowledge that instead of the scorn of mankind, he deserves 
to be ranked among those glorious martyrs, who have 
sacrificed their lives in defence of the rights of man. 
The derision and contumely which have been heaped on 
Cade, would have been heaped on those who achieved the 
liberty of this country, had they been equally unsuccess- 
ful in their struggle. It ill then becomes republicans, 
enjoying the freedom which they achieved, admiring the 
intrepidity of their conduct, and revering their memory, 
to use the name of one who sacrificed his life in an ill- 
starred effort in defence of the same glorious and univer- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 133 

sal principles of equal liberty, as a by-word and term of 
mockery and reproach. 

Cade was defeated, and his very name lies buried un- 
derneath the rubbish of ages. But his example did not 
die ; 

For freedom's battle once begun, 
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
Though often lost is ever won. 

Those who are curious in historical research may 
easily trace the influence of the principles which Cade 
battled to establish, through succeeding reigns. If they 
follow the stream of history from the sixth Henry down- 
wards, they will find that the same sentiments of freedom 
were continually breaking away from the restraints of 
tyranny, and that the same grievances complained of by 
the leader of the Kentish insurrection, were the main 
cause of all the risings of the Commons, till at last the cup 
of oppression, filled to overflowing, was dashed to the 
earth by an outraged people, the power of the throne was 
shaken to its centre, and the evils under which men long 
had groaned, were remedied by a revolution. 

Let readers not take things upon trust. Let them not 
be turned away from doctrines which have for their oh- 
ject the more complete establishment of the great princi- 
ple of equal rights, by the reproachful epithets of aristo- 
cratic writers. Let them, above all, not take the worn 
out slang of other countries as equivalent to argument ; 
but subjecting every thing to the touchstone of good sense 
and candid examination, try for themselves what is cur- 
rent gold, and what is spurious coin. If they look well 
into the true meaning of words, they will discover that 
neither Agrarian nor Utopian is a term of very deep dis- 
grace ; that to be called a Jack Cade is rather compli- 
mentary than discreditable ; and that even the dreaded 
Vol. L— 12 



134 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

name of Jacobin has not half so odious a meaning as 
people are apt to suppose. In studying the histories of 
other countries, he shows a true American feeling, who 
separates facts from the prejudices of the writer, and 
forms conclusions for himself as to character and events 
in the great drama of existence. 



TO WILLIAM L. MARCY, 

GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK. 

[From the Evening Post, Dec. 24, 1834.] 

Recent events have fixed the eyes of the Democracy of 
this State with great interest upon you. They await 
your Message with much anxiety. Not even the admira- 
ble and truly democratic state paper lately addressed to 
Congress by the National Executive was perused with 
greater eagerness and attention, than will be that com- 
munication which your duty will soon require you to lay 
before the Legislature. Circumstances have arisen to 
create a very extensive apprehension that the will of the 
people, on a question deeply interesting in its nature, 
and one on which their sentiments have been clearly ex- 
pressed, will be disregarded by their servants ; and to 
you, as their chief servant, they look with fear and trem- 
bling, lest that confidence which they have expressed by 
their suffrages in your intelligence and integrity should 
prove to have been misplaced. We shall not, in a false 
spirit of courtesy, or unrepublican strain of adulation, 
affect to deny that we largely partake of these fears ; 
nor shall we hesitate, with that freedom and frankness 
which become democrats, looking upon you, not as their 
master, but as their representative, to lay before you 
such views as we think ought to govern your conduct en 
the subject to which we allude. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 135 

It is a truth, susceptible of the clearest demonstration 
that the great body of the people of this state have express- 
ed themselves decidedly opposed to the incorporation of 
any new banks, and as decidedly in favour of the with- 
drawal of all bank-notes of a less denomination than five 
dollars from circulation. A very cursory reference to 
the proceedings of town and county meetings, previous 
to the late election, must satisfy any candid mind that 
this was one of the leading favourite objects of the demo- 
cracy. Situated where you are, and having necessarily 
some knowledore of the mode by which those who assume 
to be " leading politicians" sometimes contrive to stifle 
the expressions of the people, or weaken their force, or 
perplex them with ambiguities, you may readily conclude 
that public sentiment is in reality much more adverse to 
banks and a small note currency, and the desire for the 
speedy extinction of the latter is much stronger and 
urgent than would even appear by the tone of the pub- 
lished proceedings of democratic meetings. 

It may not be known to you, however, that, by a fraud 
of so atrocious a character that no name of infamy 
would be too strong to apply to it, some of those who 
take upon themselves the task of guiding and regulating 
public opinion, have had the hardihood, in certain impor- 
tant instances, to forge resolutions on the subject of banks 
and currency, and put them forth as a part of the pro- 
ceedings of f Democratic Conventions, though entirely 
different in their tenor from the resolutions which were 
really adopted. It may not be known to you, for exam- 
ple, that the proceedings of the Young Men's Herkimer 
Convention underwent, in very important respects, this 
audacious mutation. That Convention consisted of a 
very numerous body of the delegated representatives of 
by far the largest and most active class of the democra- 
cy of this state ; and it comprised as much intelligence. 



136 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

patriotism and discretion, as any assembly of political 
delegates which was ever convened on any like occasion 
in our country. What must have been the feelings of 
those honourable delegates, when the published account 
of their proceedings was placed in their hands, to per- 
ceive resolutions ascribed to them which they never adopt- 
ed? to see other resolutions, on important subjects, so 
changed by interpolations and omissions, as to have lost 
all the force and efficacy of their original tenor? and to find, 
also, that resolutions, expressing the sense of the meeting 
on questions of great and pervading interest, had been 
wholly expunged ? 

Such was literally the fact ! The proceedings of that 
Convention, as published, were not the proceedings which 
took place ! The account was a forgery ! The hand 
of political knavery had been employed upon it, and had 
changed the sentiments of the convention to sentiments 
in accordance with what the " party leaders " had 
then, no doubt, laid out as the course to be pursued by 
our legislature on those great questions of state policy 
which have agitated the public mind for a long time 
past. We desire to express ourselves explicitly. We 
distinctly charge that the proceedings of the Young 
Men's Herkimer Convention were materially alter- 
ed in Albany. We charge, in particular, that the resolu- 
tion on the subject of the suppression of small notes, and 
the substitution of a metallic currency, was so transform- 
ed, in Albany, by additions and omissions, as to be of 
very different and far feebler and more qualified import, 
than was the resolution as passed by the Convention, 
and transmitted to that place for publication. We 
charge, also, that another resolution, on a cognate subject, 
in which the sense of the Convention was strongly ex- 
pressed against all monopolies whatever, was, by the Al- 
bany junto, wholly suppressed. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 137 

These are some of the facts which authorize us in say- 
ing that the sentiments of the democracy of this State, 
are much more hostile to banks and a small note curren- 
cy than might be inferred from the language of their pub- 
lished proceedings. We by no means mean to be consid- 
ered as intimating that you have had any share in the 
gross frauds which have been practised upon the people, 
or that you have been in any degree accessory to them. 
But it is a fact susceptible of proof, that these frauds 
have been committed. 

Taking it as a point conceded, then, that the senti- 
ments of a vast majority of the people of this state are in 
favour of the suppression of all bank notes of a smaller 
denomination than five dollars, let us ask what reasona- 
ble pretence can be urged why this measure should be 
postponed to a future day ? AVas there ever a time in 
this country when this reform in our currency could be 
so easily effected as now 1 Was there ever a time when 
such a vast quantity of gold and silver was accumulated 
in our banking houses, and only restrained from filling 
up the channels of circulation, and flowing in healthful 
currents through the country by every vein and artery 
being previously occupied with the sickly, worthless trash 
which has so long supplied the place of constitutional 
money ? Our country contains, at this moment, twenty 
millions of dollars in specie more than it did a twelve- 
month ago, and the most exaggerated calculation of the 
amount of our small note currency does not make it more 
than fifteen millions. The specie which we now have 
within our control will desert us soon, unless it be de- 
tained by the legislative reform which the public voice de- 
mands. Paper and gold cannot circulate together. The 
banks are discounting freely, and the spirit of specula- 
tion, recovered from the shock which it received a year 
ago, is already engaged in hazardous enterprizes. Bank 
12* 



138 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

notes are the aliment on which speculation subsists, and 
there is something in the quality of that nutriment which 
seems fatal to caution and prudence. Already our mer- 
chants are importing largely. Stocks have risen in va. 
lue, and land is selling at extravagant rates. Every 
thing begins to wear the highly-prosperous aspect which 
foretokens commercial revulsion. If nothing should oc- 
cur to check the "liberahty'' of the banks, our gold and 
silver must soon desert us, to pay for the excess of our im- 
portations over the amount of our exports. Upon this 
there will follow rigorous curtailments of discounts on 
the part of those institutions which are now lavish of 
their favours. After having pampered the public into 
commercial extravagance, they will suddenly withdraw 
their aid, careful to shelter themselves from the evils 
which their own selfish liberality has occasioned. De- 
serted in their utmost need, men who have ventured far 
beyond their depth on the flood of bank credit, will find 
themselves suddenly overwhelmed, and we shall again see 
many goodly a merchant stranded on the shore, or lying 
broken wrecks, on the shoals and quicksands of that 
treacherous sea. Such will be the inevitable course of 
things, if nothing occurs to check the dangerous generos- 
ity of our banks. If the proposed prohibition of notes of 
less than five dollars is postponed eighteen months, it will 
not take place at all. The commercial business of the 
country in the intermediate time will change the face of 
affairs. Before eighteen months shall have elapsed, the 
gold and silver, which have flowed so copiously into our 
country, in payment of that balance in our favour which 
the panic of last winter, by checking importation, has so 
happily occasioned, will have left us by the natural reflux 
of trade. When we buy more of foreign nations than 
our cotton, tobacco and flour will pay for, we must dis- 
charge the balance of debt with specie. The only way 



WILLIA3ILEGGETT. 139 

to keep the necessary quantity of the precious metals 
among us, is to abolish the small note currency at once. 
No injustice will be done to the banks by carrying this 
measure into immediate effect. They have had long 
warning that the sentiments of the people demanded this 
reformation, and they know that the wishes of the peo- 
ple are — or rather ought to be — the supreme law. It is 
to be feared, however, that bank influence will prove 
stronger than the popular will. It was that influence, 
and the pretext of the panic, which prevented a law being 
passed last winter to restrain the banks from issuing the 
smaller denominations of notes. That influence, and 
some other groundless pretext, there is too much reason to 
apprehend, will again be found more potent with our le- 
gislators than their duty to their constituents, and to the 
great and permanent interests of the state. It was our 
intention to include a summary of the reasons which ren- 
der it imperative that the State Government should ab- 
stain from adding any more banks to our already almost 
innumerable host ; but interruptions which we did not 
anticipate oblige us to put a hasty end to this article. 
We shall take the liberty of resuming the subject on an 
early day. 



140 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

MONOPOLIES. 

[From the Evening Post, December 30, 1834.] 
This day week the Legislature will convene at Albany. 
Seldom has it happened that the meeting of that body 
has been looked forward to with so much general interest. 
The Message of Governor Marcy will probably be com- 
municated to both Houses of the Legislature on the first 
day of the session, and we expect to be able to place it 
before our readers on the following Thursday. By the 
sentiments of that Message, will Governor Marcy be 
tried. They will either raise him in our estimation, and 
in the estimation of all who are animated by truly demo- 
cratic principles, to a most enviable height, or sink him 
to the level of the gross herd of petty, selfish, short-sighted 
and low-minded politicians. The rare opportunity is pre- 
sented to him now, by one single act, to inscribe his name 
among those of the greatest benefactors of mankind. If 
he should stand forth as the honest, bold, unequivocal 
asserter of the great principle of Equal Rights, and strenu- 
ously recommend to the Legislature to pursue such mea- 
sures only as are consistent with that principle ; if he 
should urge upon their attention the evil effects of the 
partial and unequal system of legislation which we have 
been pursuing for years ; if he should illustrate the in- 
compatibility of all acts of special incorporation with the 
fundamental principle of our Government, and show their 
tendency to build up a privileged order, and to concen- 
trate all wealth and power in the hands of the few ; if 
he should sternly oppose all further extension of exclusive 
or partial privileges, and earnestly recommend, instead, 
the adoption of a general law of joint stock partnerships, 
by which whatever of truly valuable is now effected by 
private incorporations might be done by voluntary associ- 
ations of men, possessing no privileges above their fellow- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 141 

citizens, and liable to the same free competition which 
the merchant, the mechanic, the labourer, and the farmer 
are, in their vocations — if he should take such a stand, 
his name would go down to posterity inseparably associ- 
ated with that of the patriotic and democratic man, who, 
at the head of the National Government, has done so 
much to restore to the People their violated rights, and 
check the course of unequal, aristocratic legislation. If, 
on the contrary. Governor Marcy should listen to the 
suggestions of selfish interest or short-sighted policy ; if, 
through timidity of character or subserviency to the 
views of unprincipled demagouges, who assume to be the 
« leaders " of the democracy, and claim a right to legisla- 
tive rewards, he should recommend " a middle course," 
or should cloak his sentiments in ambiguities, or fetter 
them with qualifications that take from them all force and 
meaning ; if he should either approve a continuance of 
the fatal course of legislation which has done so much to 
oppress the people, or express disapproval of it in such 
mincing, shuffling, evasive terms as to pass for nothing ; 
if he should object to the incorporation of more banks, 
except in places where more hanks are asked for, and 
should suggest the propriety of prohibiting the small note 
currency, at some future and indefinite period: if Gov- 
ernor Marcy, instead of realizing the expectations 
of the honest democracy of the state, should pursue 
such a trimming, paltry, time-serving course, most com- 
pletely will he forfeit the high prize of fame which is 
now within his reach, most blindly will he turn aside from 
the proud destiny which it is in his power to achieve. 
We await his message with anxiety, but not without 
strong hopes. 



142 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



JOINT-STOCK PARTNERSHIP LAW. 

lFro7n the Evening Post, December 30, 1834.] 
The charters of several incorporated companies in this 
city are about to expire, and we have several times been 
asked if this paper, in pursuance of the doctrines we pro- 
fess, would feel called upon to oppose the renewal of 
those charters. To this our answer is most unequivo- 
cally in the affirmative. We shall oppose, with all our 
might and zeal, the granting or renewing of any special 
charter of incorporation whatever, no matter who may be 
the applicants, or what the objects of the association. 

But at the same time, we wish it to be distinctly un- 
derstood, that we do not desire to break up those incorpo- 
rated associations the charters of which are about to ex- 
pire. How so ? You would refuse to re-charter them, 
and thus they would inevitably be broken up. Not at all ; 
as we shall explain. 

It is not against the objects effected by incorporated 
companies that we contend ; but simply against the false 
principle, politically and politico-economically, of special 
grants and privileges. Instead of renewing the charters 
of Insurance Companies, or any other companies, about 
to expire, or granting charters to new applicants, we 
would recommend the passing of one general law of joint 
stock partnerships, allowing any number of persons to 
associate for any object, (with one single temporary ex- 
ception, which we shall state in the proper place) per- 
mitting them to sue and be sued under their partnership 
name, to be secure from liability beyond the amount of 
capital invested, to conduct their business according to 
their own good pleasure, and, in short, to possess all the 
powers defined by the revised statutes as belonging to 
corporations. There is nothing not perfectly equitable 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 143 

in the principle which exempts men from liability to any 
greater amount than the capital actually invested in any 
business, provided proper notoriety be given of the ex- 
tent and circumstances of that investment. If such a 
law were passed, the stockholders in an insurance com- 
pany, or the stockholders in any other chartered com- 
pany, when their corporate privileges were about to ex- 
pire, would have merely to give the proper public notifi- 
cation of their intention to continue their business in 
the mode specified in the general joint-stock partnership 
law, and they might go on precisely the same as if their 
special privileges had been renewed. The only difl^er- 
ence would be that those privileges would no longer be 
special, but would belong to the whole community, any 
number of which might associate together, form a new 
company for the same objects, give due notification to 
the public, and enter into free competition with pre-exist- 
ing companies or partnerships ; precisely as one man, or 
set of associated men, may now enter into mercantile 
business by the side of other merchants, import the same 
kinds of goods, dispose of them on the same terms, and 
compete with them in all the branches of their business. 

There has been a great deal said about our ultraism 
and Utopianism ; and this is the extent of it. By a 
general law of joint-stock partnerships all the good effects 
of private incorporations would be secured, and all the 
evil ones avoided. The humblest citizens might associ- 
ate together, and wield, through the agency of skilful 
and intelligent directors, chosen by themselves, a vast 
aggregate capital, composed of the little separate sums 
which they could afford to invest in such an enterprise, 
in competition with the capitals of the purse-proud men 
who now almost monopolize certain branches of business. 

The exception to which we have alluded above, is the 
business of banking. Our views on this subject were 



144 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

fully stated yesterday. We would not have banking 
thrown open to the whole community, until the legisla- 
ture had first taken measures to withdraw our paper 
money from circulation. As soon as society should be 
entirely freed, by these measures, from the habit of tak- 
ing bank-notes as money, we would urge the repeal of 
the restraining law, and place banking on as broad a 
basis as any other business whatever. 



OBJECTS OF THE EVENING POST. 

[From the Evening Post, January 3, 1835.] 
Those who only read the declamations of the opponents 
of the Equal Rights of the people, may be induced to be. 
lieve that this paper advocates principles at war with the 
very existence of social rights and social order. But 
what have we asked in the name of the people, that such 
an interested clamour should be raised against them and 
us? What have we done or said, that we should be de- 
nounced as incendiaries, striking at the very roots of soci- 
ety and tearing down the edifice of property ? It may 
be useful to recapitulate what we have already done, in 
order that those who please may judge whether or not we 
deserve these reproaches, from any but the enemies of the 
equal rights of person and property. 

In the first place, in designating the true functions of 
a good government, we placed the protection of property 
among its first and principal duties. We referred to it 
as one of the great objects for the attainment of which all 
governments were originally instituted. Does this savour 
of hostility to the rights of property ? 

In the second place, we maintained that all grants of 
monopolies, or exclusive or partial privileges to any man, 
or body of men, impaired the equal rights of the people, 



I WILLIAM LEGGETT. 541 

and was in direct violation of the first principle of a free 
government. Does it savour of hostility to the rights of 
property to maintain that all property has equal rights, 
and that exclusive privileges granted to one class of men, 
or one species of property, impair the equal rights of all 
the others ? 

As a deduction from these principles, we draw the con- 
clusion that charters conferring partial or exclusive mo- 
nopolies on small fractions of society, are infringements 
on the general rights of society, and therefore that the 
system ought to be abandoned as soon as possible, as ut- 
terly at war with the rights of the people at large. It is 
here that the shoe pinches, and here the clamour against 
us will be found to originate. Thousands and tens of 
thousands of influential individuals, at the bar, on the 
bench, in our legislative bodies, and everywhere, are deep- 
ly interested in the continuance of these abuses. Law- 
makers, law-expounders and law executors, have invested 
either their money or their credit in corporations of every 
kind, and it is not to be wondered at that they should 
cry out against the abandonment of a system from 
whence they derive such exorbitant gains. 

We are accused of violating vested rights when we 
ask, in the name of the people, that no more be created, 
and that all those possessing the means and the inclina- 
tion, may be admitted, under general regulations, to a 
participation in the privileges which hitherto have been 
only enjoyed through the caprice, the favour, the policy, 
or the corruption, of legislative bodies. We never even 
hinted at touching those vested rights, until the period to 
which they had been extended by law had expired, and 
till it could be done without a violation of legislative 
faith. We defy any man to point out in any of our argu- 
ments on this subject a single idea or sentence that will 
sustain the charge of hostility to actually vested rights. 
Vol. I — 13 



146 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF \ 

Our opposition was prospective, not retroactive ; it was 
not to present, but to future vested rights. 

In attacking a course of policy in the future, do we 
make war on the past? In pointing out what we beUeve 
errors in former legislation, and recommending their 
abandonment in future, do we violate any right of proper- 
ty, or recommend any breach of puplic faith ? Or, in 
advocating the equal rights of all, do we impair the con- 
stitutional rights of any? It might be well for the cla^ 
mourous few who assail our principles and our motives 
with opprobious epithets, which, though they do not un- 
derstand their purport themselves, they mean should con- 
vey the most dishonourable imputations — it might be 
well for them to answer these questions before they resort 
to railing. 

One of the greatest supports of an erroneous system of 
legislation, is the very evil it produces. When it is pro- 
posed to remedy the mischief by adopting a new system, 
every abuse which has been the result of the old one be- 
comes an obstacle to reformations. Every political 
change, however salutary, must be injurious to the inte- 
rests of some, and it will be found that those who profit 
by abuses are always more clamourous for their continu- 
ance than those who are only opposing them from mo- 
tives of justice or patriotism, are for their abandonment. 
Such is precisely the state of the question of monopoly at 
this moment. ' 

Under the abuses of the right to grant exclusive privi- 
leges to the few, which is a constructive, if not a usurped 
power, a vast and concentrated interest and influence has 
grown up among us, which will undoubtedly be seriously 
affected in its monopoly of gain from that source, by the 
discontinuance of their chartered privileges, when they 
shall expire by their own limitation. The admission of 
all others having the means and the inclination to associ- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 147 

ate for similar purposes, by destroying the monopoly at 
one blow, will in all probability diminish the prospect of 
future gains ; and these will be still further curtailed, by 
at first restricting banks in their issues of small notes and 
in the amount of notes they are permitted to put into cir- 
culation, and finally by repealing the restraining law, and 
throwing banking open to the free competition of the 
whole community. These may prove serious evils to the 
parties concerned ; but it is a poor argument to say that a 
bad system should be persevered in, least a small minority 
of the community should suffer some future inconveni- 
ence. The magnitude of the evlis produced by an erro- 
neous system of legislation, far from being a circum- 
stance in favour of its continuance or increase, is the 
strongest argument in the world for its being abandoned 
as soon as possible. Every reformation may in this way 
be arrested, under the pretence that the evils it will cause 
are greater than those it will cure. On the same princi- 
ple the drawing of a tooth might be opposed, on the 
ground that the pain is worse than that of the tooth-ache, 
keeping out of sight the fact that the one is a lasting and 
increasing, the other a momentary evil. 

It is the nature of political abuses, to be always on the 
increase, unless arrested by the virtue, intelligence and 
firmness of the people. If not corrected in time, they 
grow up into a gigantic vigour and notoriety which at 
length enables them to wrestle successfully with the peo- 
ple, and overthrow them and their rights. The posses- 
sors of monopolies and exclusive privileges, which form 
the essence of every bad government, pervert a long per- 
severance in the wrong, into a political right ; abuses 
grow venerable by time ; usurpation matures into pro- 
scription ; distinctions become hereditary ; and what can- 
not be defended by reason, is maintained on the ground 



148 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

that a long continuance of wrongs, and a long possession 
of rights, are equally sacred. 



REFUSAL OF THE U. S. BANK TO PRODUCE 

ITS BOOKS.* 

[From the Evening Post, May, 13, 1834.] 
The resolution adopted by the popular branch of Con- 
gress to appoint a Committee of Investigation to inquire 
into the affairs and conduct of the United States Bank 
was passed by a vote of 174 to 41. There has scarcely 
a question of any kind arisen during the present session 
which has received the approbation of so large and sig- 
nal a majority of the House. Rumors have been in cir- 
culation for some days past, from the purport of which 
it was surmised that the managers of the United States 
Bank were determined to defeat all attempts to investi- 
gate the concerns of that corrupt institution, and refuse 
to remove the veil which conceals their iniquitous trans- 
actions. These rumors, however, could not gain entire 
credit from those who bore in mind how strong was the 
vote of the House in favour of appointing the Investigat- 
ing Committee, how explicit were the instructions given 
them, and how ample the powers with which they were 
clothed. 

It seems, however, that these reports were but too well 
founded. The Bank has added another act of audacious 
wickedness to those which had already made it the ob- 
ject of unappeasable detestation and abhorrence to the 
great body of the People of the United States. It has 
given another evidence of its determination to rule the 
country ; and as it lately undertook to withhold the pub- 
lic funds from the executive department charged with 
their custody, and to dictate the law to the President of 

* Several pieces are inserted here out of tlie order of date. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 149 

the United States ; so now it refuses obedience to a reso- 
i iution of Congress, framed in strict accordance with the 
terms of its charter, and shutting its books against the 
Committee of Investigation, sends them back to Wash- 
ington no wiser than when they left. 

We learn this fact from various sources. The Penn- 
sylvanian says, " After a tedious and protracted attempt 
to induce the Bank to submit amicably to an investiga- 
tion legally ordered and emanating from the direct re- 
presentatives of the people, it was found necessary at 
last to serve a subpcena duces tecum upon the President, 
Directors, &c. of the United States Bank, to bring them 
and the requisite books and papers of the institution be- 
fore the committee, then sitting at the North American 
Hotel. The officers so summoned made their appear- 
ance before the committee, and formally refused 

EITHER TO TESTIFY, OR TO PRODUCE THE BOOKS AND PA- 
PERS, IN EFFECT DENYING THE AUTHORITY OF THE COM- 
MITTEE AND DISCLAIMING ALL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE RE- 
PUBLIC AND ITS SERVANTS ! The rcfusal being peremp- 
tory, the only course left to the committee was an imme- 
diate adjournment." 

The proceedings referred to in the foregoing para- 
graph took place on Saturday last. The committee of 
Investigation adjourned, we understand, to meet again in 
Washington, on Thursday next, when, it is presumed, a 
full official report of their whole proceedings and those of 
the Bank will be submitted to Congress and laid before 
the people of the United States. 

Nothing has occurred in the whole history of this pow- 
erful and dangerous monopoly which equals in arrogance 
this high-handed and startling proceeding. Its bribery 
and corruption, extensively as it has been practised, was 
meant to operate in secret. Its resistance to the Execu- 
tive authority, in the matter of the pension fund, was 
offered under the pretence of obedience to the law. But 
13* 



/ 



150 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

in its refusal to submit to the investigations of the Com- 
mittee of Congress, there is no plea to justify or extenu- 
ate its audacity ; and we can look upon this instance of 
monstrous and unheard of arrogance in no other light 
than as the result of a Conviction entertained by the Bank 
that the power of its gold lias at length prevailed, and that 
what with direct bribery, what with indirect corruption, 
and what with pecuniary coercion, it has obtained the 
mastery over the American people. We shall be greatly 
mistaken, however, if this last exhibition of autocratic ar- 
rogance does not arouse the indignation of the people to 
the highest pitch. We have miscalculated the moral 
sense of our fellow-countrymen if they can tamely brook 
the audacious conduct on the part of a money corpora- 
tion, thus openly and insolently setting all law and all 
authority at defiance. 

The clause in the charter of the Bank, by which Con- 
gress reserved to itself the power to examine into the af- 
fairs and management of that institution is clear and ex- 
plicit. The twenty-third section of the act of 1816 
chartering the United States Bank, is in the following 
words: " That it shall, at all times, be lawful for a com- 
mittee of either House of Congress, appointed for that 
purpose, to inspect the books, and examine into the pro- 
ceedings of the corporation hereby created, and to report 
whether the provisions of this charter have been, by the 
same, violated or not." 

With regard to the particulars of the conduct of the 
President and Directors of the United States Bank to- 
wards the Investigating Committee we have heard sev- 
eral verbal reports, of which the following paragraph, 
given in a postscript of the Albany Argus, contains the 
substance. The extreme arrogance of the bank, and the 
unlawfulness of the pretence it set up, may be inferred 
from the course adopted by the Committee, who would 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 151 

not have relinquished the investigation and returned to 
Washington, had the Bank attempted to prevent their in- 
vestigation by no other means than those which its char- 
ter authorizes it to use. 

" The Committee soon after their appointment," says 
the Albany Argus, " assembled in Philadelphia, and de- 
manded the usual convenience of a room in the Bank for 
the examination of the books and accounts of the bank. 
This was refused, except upon the condition that a com- 
mittee of seven of the directors should be present at all ex- 
aminations of the books, and it was also refused to allow 
copies or extracts to be taken. The committee then ad- 
journed to a room in one of the hotels, and demanded 
that the books be sent thither. This was also refused ; 
but a proposition made on the part of the Bank to allow 
an examination of the books in the bank and in the pre- 
sence of the officers of the institution. The committee, 
anxious to fulfil the duties of their appointment, accepted 
the proposition, and proceeded to the Bank ; when Mr. 
Biddle refused to allow an examination of the books, un- 
less the object of such examination of the particular books 
were stated in writing. A compliance with such extra- 
ordinary terms, was of course inadmissible ; and the com- 
mittee returned to their room, and directed subpoenas to 
issue for the appearance before them of the president and 
directors, with the books of the bank. The subpoenas 
were served by the marshal, and the president and direc- 
tors appeared, but refused the books, and refused to be 
sworn or to give evidence. The committee of course, 
had no alternative but to return to the seat of government 
which they were to do, we learn, on Monday." 

Nothing but the consciousness of damning guilt — no- 
thins but the fear that practises of the most enormous 
and flagitious corruption would be detected — nothing but 
the apprehension that its vast and wicked schemes were 



162 POLITICAL WRITINGS Op 

about to be laid before the American People, could have 
prevailed upon the Bank of the United States to act as 
it has done towards the Committee of Investigation. If 
its conduct had been pure — if its business had been hon- 
estly conducted — if its condition was solvent — if it had 
acted in conformity with the provisions of its charter 

what need was there to shun investigation ? Guilt 

shrinks in holes and corners, but an upright man stands 
boldly forth in the light of day. The course which the 
Bank has adopted must alienate those (if any there were) 
who have hitherto believed in its integrity. This effect, 
indeed, is said already to have taken place. 



REFUSAL OF THE U. S. BANK TO PRODUCE 

ITS BOOKS. 

[From the Evening Post of May 3l, 1834.] 
" Button button, who's got the button ?" 

Our readers will doubtless recollect an old play of this 
name among the amusements of their youthful days, but 
probably never anticipated it would be played by such 
dio-nified personages as the President and Directors of 
the Bank of the United States. It will be seen by a pe- 
rusal of the documents accompanying the Report of the 
Committee of Investigation, that they were as much 
puzzled to find out who had the custody of the Bank 
books, as we have often been to find who had the button. 
The books of the ancient sibyls were not more difficult 
of access than those of the Bank of the United States. 
When application was made by the Committee to the 
President, it was found they were not in his custody. 
When asked what clerks had charge of particular books, 
it was replied none ; and when the Directors had a simi- 
lar question put to them, they could not be brought to 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 153 

confess that these books were in their possession, or under 
their control. In reading this correspondence, we are 
strongly reminded of the fable of the two corporate gen- 
tlemen, who went into a butcher's shop and stole a piece 
of beef, and can scarcely refrain from adopting the same 
opinion with the honest butcher. 

But it not only appears that no person has charge of the 
books of the Bank, but there are moreover strong indi- 
cations in this correspondence that nobody represents the 
Bank itself, or is responsible for its proceedings. The 
committee address a letter to Mr. Biddle, and are answered 
by Mr. Sergeant. They write to Mr. Sergeant, and 
presto ! Mr. Biddle responds, or in default of Mr. Biddle, 
Monsieur Jaudon volunteers. In this way the committee 
are bandied about from one to another, until they become 
as much puzzled to find out the rogue, as the honest 
butcher in the fable. All that they, or we, can gather 
from this inextricable jumble is, that nobody has the cus- 
tody of the books, and that nobody represents the Bank 
or is responsible for its proceedings. Whether the Presi- 
dent, the Cashier, the Directors, or the Clerks, constitute 
this extraordinary body corporate, is a profound mystery. 
The President, we all know, wields the whole power of 
the Bank, but the responsibility for its exercise is, for all 
we know, in the man of the moon. They have got the 
button among them, that is certain, but the fortunate 
possessor has not yet been detected. 

The Bank reminds us, in truth, of that race of mis- 
chievous amphibious animals, called water rats, which 
are neither amenable to the laws of the land, nor the 
laws of the sea. When detected in rifling the house 
they take shelter in the docks ; and when routed thence 
ensconce themselves in the cellar. The very best mousers 
are at fault, and the rats escape with impunity. Whether 
they have any learned counsel to aid or abet them, we 



154 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

cannot say, but rather apprehend that such is the case, 
since all experience verifies the fact, that no rogue will 
ever lack a pettifogger, who has discretion enough to steal 
a cheese for a fee. 

The truth is, that such corporate bodies as the Bank 
of the United States, being founded on no general princi- 
ple of law, are in fact amenable to none, and always 
escape the responsibility of their illegal acts by the aid 
of shuffling chicanery, stimulated by the ample means 
of remuneration in their possession. Legal opinions may 
be bought like any other commodity, and so may the men 
who sell them, if the price is proportioned to the dignity 
and value of the purchase. Having neither souls nor 
bodies, corporations cannot be brought to a sense of shame 
by exposure, nor to a sense of justice by the fear of 
punishment. They can neither feel disgrace nor smart 
under corporeal infliction. They belong to no genus of 
animals ; are subject to none of the laws of nature and 
society ; and when justice seeks to lay hold of them, it 
finds that it has grasped at a shadow. Even High Con- 
stable Hays, the terror of all evil doers, would be at fault 
in hunting such game. They are private citizens, one 
moment asserting their natural and constitutional rights ; 
the next a corporate body, sheltering itself in the obscu- 
rity of its equivocal being, and claiming the privilege of 
exemption from the duties and responsibilities of private 
individuals. Thus dodging about from side to side, and 
availing itself of pettifogging subtilties, a full purse, and 
a brazen face, the Bank of the United States has hitherto 
baffled the scrutiny of the public inquest, defied the con- 
stituted authorities of the nation, and triumphed in the 
impunity of detected yet unpunished guilt. 

But there is one great and omnipotent tribunal it can- 
not evade — the tribunal of the sovereign people of the 
United States. To that tribunal it must come at last, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 155 

I 

and by that tribunal it will be condemned to annihila- 
tion. 

You cannot fee them — they are too virtuous to be cor- 
rupted by bribes, and if they were not so, too numerous 
to be bribed. A few of their leaders may be seduced by 
the temptations of ambition and avarice combined ; but 
a nation of freemen, never yet bowed their necks to the 
yoke, even though it were of solid gold. The doom of 
the Bank of the United States is sealed ; the condemna- 
tion is in the mouths and hearts of the American people ; 
and the evils inflicted upon them by that powerful, un- 
principled corporation, will be amply repaid by the deep 
detestation they will ever afterwards feel for such a dan- 
gerous and unconstitutional monopoly. 



THE BANK PARTY. 

[From the Evening Post of June 12, 1834.] 
Whoever is an observer of the signs of the times 
must have noticed the earnest and painful efforts of the 
Bank party to rid themselves of that appellation. They 
have recently been endeavouring with great zeal to per- 
suade the world that they are not partizans of the United 
'States Bank; that the re-charter of that institution is a 
matter of secondary consequence with them ; and the 
chief object of their warfare with the democracy of the 
country is to rescue the Constitution from the hands of a 
despot and usurper ; to correct the evils of Executive 
misrule ; and to retrieve the land from the ruin which is 
laying it waste and desolate. The question to be deci- 
ded, they say, is not Bank or no Bank, but Laws or no 
Laws, If they are sincere in these professions, then 
must the strife of parties cease at once ; for surely the 
democracy will never be found warring against those who 



156 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

avow the same principles, and aim at the same objects 
with themselves. To prevent usurpation, repress tyranny, 
and maintain a system of equal and just laws, have 
always been the great aims of the democratic party. 
These form at all times, and under all circumstances, 
the main precepts of their doctrine, and furnish the battle- 
cry of their political contests. If those with whom we 
have been hitherto contending are animated by the same 
sentiments, and directed by the same motives, let us at 
once drop our weapons, clasp each others' hands in fellow- 
ship, and proceed hereafter in a united band, like bro- 
thers, not disputing each inch of ground, like foes. But 
before we cast aside our arms and offer tokens of amity, 
it maybe well to scrutinize these pretensions, and compare 
them with the conduct of those by whom they are avowed. 
The despotism and usurpation of the chief magistrate, 
as far as any specific accusation can be inferred from the 
vague charges uttered against him, consists in the remo- 
val of the Government deposites from the United States 
Bank. The Senate, it is true, in passing their verdict 
against him, were careful to exclude from it all specifi- 
cation of particular offences. While they pronounced 
him guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, they left it 
to conjecture to discover the transgression, with no nar- 
rower limit to circumscribe its search than the vague 
phrase of " late executive proceedings in relation to the 
public revenue." But though that extraordinary sen- 
tence is thus indefinite in its description of the particu- 
lar act it condemns, there are circumstances which point 
to the removal of the deposites as the measure which has 
given occasion to such a world of denunciations against 
infringements of the constitution, and such pious horror 
of executive despotism and usurpation. This is the par- 
ticular act of the administration against which the slings 
and arrows of an outrageous party are incessantly dis- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 157 

charged. The removal of the deposites is the theme of 
their newspaper tirades ; it is the burden of all their 
petitions to Congress ; it is the topic on which Bank 
orators in that body have exhausted their eloquence, and 
well nigh exhausted the English language of its terms of 
invective and reproach. We take it then, that the re- 
moval of the deposites is the measure which is relied 
upon to prove the Executive a tyrant and usurper. 

It is not necessary to the purpose of this article that 
we should establish either the policy or the constitution- 
ality of that measure. Let us first examine if our oppo- 
nents are sincere in alleging that their warfare is in de- 
fence of a violated Constitution, not in defence of the 
United States Bank. If they are really not a Bank 
party, but a Constitutional party ; if their object is not 
to perpetuate a huge moneyed institution, too powerful 
for a free people to risk, and too corrupt for a virtuous 
people to endure ; but to re-establish the Constitution in 
its original strength and simplicity, before the spirit of 
expediency had strained any of its provisions to larger 
issues than its framers designed, and before the fatal 
precedent had been pleaded to justify subsequent perver- 
sions — if our opponents are governed by such motives, no 
wonder that they reject with scorn the appellation of 
Bank party. 

But if we look back to the history of their hostility to 
the Executive, shall we find that it commenced with the 
removal of the deposites ? Shall we find that before that 
act they yielded him their support, joined with him in 
censuring the corruptions of the Bank, and manifested no 
desire for the renewal of its charter ? Shall we not on 
the contrary, find that a large portion of those who now 
fight against the administration under a common banner, 
and shout a common war-cry, were as decidedly opposed 
to Andrew Jackson before he was elected chief mao-is- 
VoL. I 14 



158 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

trate as they are at this moment ? Shall we not find that 
they misrepresented his actions, maligned his motives, 
and even slandered his dead wife, while she lay yet hardly 
cold in her grave ? And on his being chosen by the Peo- 
pie to preside over them, did the enmity of these champi- 
ons of the Constitution cease ? Did they not embarrass 
his administration by every art that ingenuity could de- 
vise, and shower on his head every reproach that slander 
could invent ? Did they not deride his public measures, 
and traduce his private conduct — at one moment denounc- 
ing him as a military chieftain ruling with the sword, 
and the next as a superannuated imbecile, blindly led by 
flatterers and favourites 1 Did they not receive his very 
first suggestion to Congress relative to the United States 
Bank with jeers and hisses ? Did they not defend the 
conduct of that institution in all its successive steps of 
wickedness and corruption ? — its interference in elections, 
its infidelity to its trust in the business of the three per 
cent, stock — its corruption of the press — its enormous 
over-issues, inducing ruinous speculation — its rapid cur- 
tailments, causing wide-spread ruin and distress — and 
finally its audacious violation of its charter, by turning a 
Committee of Congress from its doors ? To these ques- 
tions every man not deaf or blind, physically or mentally, 
must return an answer in the affirmative. 

The other portion of this patriotic party, which is now 
waging fight in defence of the Constitution and laws 
against the usurpations of a despot, is composed of those 
true lovers of their country and its happy institutions 
who, a little while ago, showed their devotion for the con- 
stitution by raising the standard of rebellion — by arming 
themselves against the laws — and threatening to cut to 
pieces the officer who should attempt to carry them into 
execution. The tyranny and usurimtion of the Chief 
Magistrate were then shown in his preserving the Union 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 159 

against their parricidal assaults and taming their fiery- 
spirits to obedience. Their foiled leader, moved by rest- 
less ambition and implacable hatred, now stands among 
the foremost champions of the Bank — he who but a few 
months since was ready to drown the country in blood in 
defence of state rights, is now the advocate of an insti- 
tion, which has not a word of warrant in the Constitution, 
and the inevitable effect of which, sooner or later, must 
be to melt this confederation into one vast consolidated 
empire, and place an aristocracy at its head. 

These are the materials of which the party opposed to 
the administration is mainly composed. There are joined 
with them, a certain class of men in the mercantile cities, 
who are such pure and intelligent patriots, that no ques- 
tion, of whatever importance to the country, could bring 
them into the field of politics, unless it directly affected 
their personal and pecuniary interest — men whose hearts 
are in their money-bags — whose patriotism rises and falls 
with the rates of exchange and the price of stocks — 
whose constitutional scruples are so nice, that it is a 
sufficient answer with them to all the objections to the 
United States Bank, that it furnishes a convenient me- 
dium for the management of domestic exchanges. These 
men join in the cry of executive tyranny and usurpa- 
tion, and complain that the national faith is violated by 
the removal of the deposites ! 

This then is the party which claims to be called Whigs, 
and repudiates the name of the Bank party. Yet what 
are they contending for but the re-charter of the United 
States Bank ? What has the Senate of the United 
States been doing for six months past, but reading and 
making speeches about memorials praying for the resto- 
ration of the deposites and the renewal of the Bank char- 
ter 1 What is the burden of every harangue from the 
opponents of the administration, but a declaration that 



160 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the country cannot prosper without a national Bank ? 
What is the object of every journal of their party, but to 
obtain a re-charter of the Bank ? Bank ! Bank ! Bank ! 
is their constant theme — it is the prayer of their meetings 
— the topic of their newspaper declamation — and the be- 
ginning, middle and end of the violent philippics of the 
partizans of that institution in Congress. The Bank 
is the band which holds this ill-assorted party together — 
it is the mag^azine which furnishes them with weapons — 
it is the treasury which supplies them with means. It is 
by the aid of the Bank that they hope to pull down the 
administration. 

The cry of Executive usurpation and despotism is mere 
declamation to mislead the unwary — it is mere dust and 
smoke to hide the real object. The Bank is the real ob- 
ject of the warfare ; for it is only through the Bank that 
any leader of the desperate faction can hope to succeed. 
Yet aware of the honest indignation felt by the People at 
the contemplation of the numerous acts of corruption and 
audacity practised by that institution — and particularly 
afraid of the effect of its last daring and unprecedented 
step — they now seek to cast off the name of Bank party, 
and to be known only by their stolen appellation of Whigs. 
Whigs, indeed ! What right have they to that title, in- 
separably associated as it is with the memory of patriot- 
ism and valour and manly worth ? What right have 
they — tories in all that distinguished tories in the revolu- 
tion—to a name which implies love of freedom and the 
equal rights of mankind ? No, let us not lose sight of 
their proper — their only proper designation. They are 
not whigs, and from this hour forth shall never be so styled 
in this journal. They are the Bank Party — a name 
significant of infamy — a name with which they will go 
down in history, and 

" Stink in the nose of all succeeding time, — " 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 161 

a name which they have richly earned by their unprinci- 
pled support of an unconstitutional, dangerous, most cor- 
rupt and usurping institution. Let that name stick to 
them. The democracy ought to call them by no other. 



CONDUCT OF THE BANK. 

[Fro?n the Evening Post, June 9, 1834.] 
The Bank of the United States desires to carry on its 
business in secret and hide the record of its corruptions 
from every eye, and the Senate of the United States, 
some of whose members are doubtless governed in the 
matter by strong reasons, are determined to gratify that 
desire. The Bank has now been more than six months 
wholly free from the supervision of Government Direc- 
tors. The Senate have made the office of Government 
Director so unpleasantly conspicuous, and the honest 
exercise of its duties a subject of such reproaches and 
abuse, that there are few men willing to accept the unen- 
viable trust, and those who do are turned away from the 
Bank on the ground of their not having been invited ! 
The reader ought not to lose sight of the fact that the con- 
duct of the Board of Directors of the Branch Bank in 
this city to Saul Alley, was in pursuance of orders from 
Nicholas Biddle ! The two checks provided by the cau- 
tious framers of the Bank charter, to prevent it from 
abusing its enormous money power — namely the right of 
the Government to be represented by five directors at its 
Board, and of either House of Congress to appoint a 
Committee to look into its affairs, are completely de- 
stroyed by the high-handed conduct of that guilty insti- 
tution, and its collusory assistants in the United States 
Senate. How much longer will this audacious monopoly 
be allowed to abuse the patience of the People ] 
14* 



/ 



162 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

TRUE FUNCTIONS OF GOVERNMENT. 

[From the Evening Post, Nov. 21, 1834.] 

" There are no necessary evils in Government. Its 
evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself 
to equal protection, and, as heaven does its rains, shower 
its favours alike on the high and the low, the rich and 
the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing." 

This is the language of our venerated President, and 
the passage deserves to be written in letters of gold, for 
neither in truth of sentiment or beauty of expression can 
it be surpassed. We choose it as our text for a few re- 
marks on the true functions of Government. 

The fundamental principle of all governments is the 
protection of person and property from domestic and 
foreign enemies ; in other words, to defend the weak 
against the strong. By establishing the social feeling in 
a community, it was intended to counteract that selfish 
feeling, which, in its proper exercise, is the parent of all 
worldly good, and, in its excesses, the root of all evil. 
The functions of Government, when confined to their 
proper sphere of action, are therefore restricted to the 
making o^ general laws, uniform and universal in their 
operation, for these purposes, and for no other. 

Governments have no right to interfere with the pur- 
suits of individuals, as guarantied by those general laws, 
by offering encouragements and granting privileges to 
any particular class of industry, or any select bodies of 
men, inasmuch as all classes of industry and all men are 
equally important to the general welfare, and equally en- 
titled to protection. 

Whenever a Government assumes the power of dis- 
criminating between the difTerent classes of the commu- 
nity, it becomes, in effect, the arbiter of their prosperity, 
and exercises a power not contemplated by any intelli- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 163 

gent people in delegating their sovereignty to their rulers. 
It then becomes the great regulator of the profits of 
every species of industry, and reduces men from a de- 
pendence on their own exertions, to a dependence on the 
caprices of their Government. Governments possess no 
delegated right to tamper with individual industry a sin- 
gle hair's -breadth beyond what is essential to protect the 
rights of person and property. 

In the exercise of this power of intermeddling with 
the private pursuits and individual occupations of the 
citizen, a Government may at pleasure elevate one class 
and depress another ; it may one day legislate exclusive- 
ly for the farmer, the next for the mechanic, and the 
third for the manufacturer, who all thus become the mere 
puppets of legislative cobbling and tinkering, instead of 
independent citizens, relying on their own resources for 
their prosperity. It assumes the functions which belong 
alone to an overruling Providence, and affects to become 
the universal dispenser of good and evil. 

This power of regulating — of increasing or diminish- 
ing the profits of labour and the value of property of all 
kinds and degrees, by direct legislation, in a great mea- 
sure destroys the essential object of all civil compacts, 
which, as we said before, is to make the social a counter- 
poise to the selfish feeling. By thus operating directly 
on the latter, by oflfering one class a bounty and another 
a discouragement, they involve the selfish feeling in 
every struggle of party for the ascendancy, and give to 
the force of political rivalry all the bitterest excitement 
of personal interests conflicting with each other. Why 
is it that parties now exhibit excitement aggravated to a 
degree dangerous to the existence of the Union and to 
the peace of society? Is it not that by frequent exercises 
of partial legislation, almost every man's personal in- 
terests have become deeply involved in the result of the 



164 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

contest 1 In common times, the strife of parties is the 
mere struggle of ambitious leaders for power ; now they 
are deadly contests of the whole mass of the people, 
whose pecuniary interests are implicated in the event, 
because the Government has usurped and exercised the 
power of legislating on their private affairs. The selfish 
feeling has been so strongly called into action by this 
abuse of authority as almost to overpower the social 
feeling, which it should be the object of a good Govern- 
ment to foster by every means in its power. 

No nation, knowingly and voluntarily, with its eyes 
open, ever delegated to its Government this enormous 
power, which places at its disposal the property, the in- 
dustry, and the fruits of the industry, of the whole peo- 
ple. As a general rule, the prosperity of rational men 
depends on themselves. Their talents and their virtues 
shape their fortunes. They are therefore the best judges 
of their own affairs, and should be permitted to seek 
their own happiness in their own way, untrammelled by 
the capricious interference of legislative bungling, so 
long as they do not violate the equal rights of others, nor 
transgress the general laws for the security of person and 
property. 

But modern refinements have introduced new princi- 
ples in the science of Government. Our own Govern- 
ment, most especially, has assumed and exercised an au- 
thority over the people, not unlike that of weak and va- 
cillating parents over their children, and with about the 
same degree of impartiality. One child becomes a fa- 
vourite because he has made a fortune, and another be- 
cause he has failed in the pursuit of that object ; one 
because of its beauty, and another because of its defor- 
mity. Our Government has thus exercised the right of 
dispensing favours to one or another class of citizens at 
will ; of directing its patronage first here and then there ; 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 165 

of bestowing one day and taking back the next ; of 
giving to the few and denying to the many ; of invest- 
ing wealth with new and exclusive privileges, and dis- 
tributing, as it were at random, and with a capricous 
policy, in unequal portions, what it ought not to bestow, 
or what, if given away, should be equally the portion of 
all. 

A government administered on such a system of poli- 
cy may be called a Government of Equal Rights, but it 
is in its nature and essence a disguised despotism. It 
is the capricious dispenser of good and evil, without any 
restraint, except its own sovereign will. It holds in its 
hand the distribution of the goods of this world, and is 
consequently the uncontrolled master of the people. 

Such was not the object of the Government of the 
United States, nor such the powers delegated to it by the 
people. The object was beyond doubt to protect the 
weak against the strong, by giving them an equal voice 
and equal rights in the state ; not to make one portion 
stronger, the other weaker at pleasure, by crippling one 
or more classes of the community, or making them tribu- 
tary to one alone. This is too great a power to entrust 
to Government. It was never given away by the peo- 
ple, and is not a right, but a usurpation. 

Experience will show that this power has always been 
exercised under the influence and for the exclusive bene- 
fit of wealth. It was never wielded in behalf of the 
community. Whenever an exception is made to the 
general law of the land, founded on the principle of equal 
rights, it will always be found to be in favour of wealth. 
These immunities are never bestowed on the poor. 
They have no claim to a dispensation of exclusive bene- 
fits, and their only business is to " take care of the rich 
that the rich may take care of the poor J ^ 

Thus it will be seen that the sole reliance of the labour- 



106 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

ing classes, who constitute a vast majority of every 
people on the earth, is the great principle of Equal 
Rights ; that their only safeguard against oppression is a 
system of legislation which leaves all to the free exer- 
cise of their talents and industry, within the limits of the 
GENERAL LAW, and which, on no pretence of public good, 
bestows on any particular class of industry, or any parti- 
cular body of men, rights or privileges not equally en- 
joyed by the great aggregate of the body politic. 

Time will remedy the departures which have already 
been made from this sound republican system, if the 
people but jealously watch and indignantly frown on any 
future attempts to invade their equal rights, or appropri- 
ate to the few what belongs to all alike. To quote, in 
conclusion, the language of the great man, with whose 
admirable sentiment we commenced these remarks, " it 
is time to pause in our career — if we cannot at once, injus- 
tice to the interests vested under improvident legislation, 
make our government what it ought to be, we can at 
least take a stand against all new grants of monopolies 
and exclusive privileges, and against any prostitution of 
our Government to the advancement of the few at the 
expense of the many." 



CORPORATIONS. 

[From the Evening Post, November 22, 1834.] 
In reading the lucubrations of the advocates of mo- 
nopolies and incorporations, one might be induced to 
wonder how other countries, not favoured with the mar- 
velous expedients for " the proper development of enter- 
prise," and " the employment of capital," managed not 
only to exist, but to enjoy a reasonable degree of prospe- 
rity. According to their doctrine, the people, in their 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 167 

capacity of a body politic, can do nothing ; individual 
capital, except aided by exclusive privileges, can do no- 
thing in the way of public improvements. Without 
incorporations we can have no roads ; without incorpo- 
rations we can have no canals, or any other public im- 
provements ; without incorporations we can have no 
money ; and, by and by, we shall perhaps be told that 
unless the bakers be incorporated we shall have no bread. 
In order to have public improvements, " a proper develop- 
ment of enterprise," and " a beneficial employment of 
capital," it would seem, according to these writers, that 
it is indispensable that the great mass of the people 
should be divested of the Equal Rights guarantied to them 
by the constitution. 

Did these advocates of incorporations ever read of the 
great Roman acqueduct for conveying water from Tus- 
culum to Rome ? Did they ever hear of the Appian way, 
both the work of one single man ? Or did they ever 
hear of the Flarainian way, also the work of one magni- 
ficent Roman ? These works, like the Egyptian pyra- 
mids, seem destined to be coeval with the duration of 
the earth which supports them. Some twenty centuries 
have elapsed since their construction, and almost a hun- 
dred generations have availed themselves of these great 
public benefits, and still they remain the almost eternal 
monuments of individual public spirit. Will any of our 
railroads, or incorporated bridges, last as long? For a 
period of near two thousand years, the inhabitants 
of Rome, and all the world that flocked to Rome, have 
enjoyed the benefits of these great public improvements, 
without paying a single cent in tolls, or for a drink of 
water, and without the grant of a single exclusive privi- 
lege to any man or association of men. Neither Appius 
Claudius, nor Titus Flaminius, nor their heirs, ever levied 
contributions on the people of Rome for the water of the 



168 POLITICAL WHITINGS OF 

acqueduct, or the use of the road. We never heard that 
either Appius or Flarainius was incorporated ; transmut- 
ed into irresponsible nonentities, above the laws, or so 
slippery as to evade their operation. They were mere 
simple individuals — one an orator, the other a soldier who 
fell in defending his country against Hannibal. Actuat- 
ed by a noble spirit of patriotism, they gave to their 
countrymen, as a free gift, what it seems can now only 
be attained in this modern republic by grants of exclu- 
sive privileges, and by a perpetual tax upon the people. 

All the ancient world is filled with instances of these 
noble benefactions for public purposes ; and is there any 
reason why this new world should not emulate the exam- 
ple ? A few Stephen Girards might in a similar spirit of 
munificence confer equal benefits on this country. But 
we do not rely upon individual wealth or patriotism to do 
all that is salutary in the way of public improvements. 
We look to the wants of the people, and to the great inter- 
ests of the community at large for such purposes. Is 
the hope fallacious, or have we no examples to encourage 
us? 

Let us see what the People, through the agency of 
their representatives, have already done in this and other 
States of the Union ; and let us look what they and their 
rulers have done elsewhere. Was the great canal of 
Languedoc the work of an incorporated company ? Was 
that system of canals in China, to which the old world 
affords no parallel, the work of an incorporated company 
or companies ? Are the great system of internal im- 
provements, in operation in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the 
work of incorporated companies, or are they the work of 
the people of those states through the agency of their 
common representatives, and by means of their common 
resources? And last, though not least, have not the 
greatest works of this age, the Erie and Champlain ca- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 169 

Hals, been achieved by the people, the great body politic 
of the state, after an incorporated company had totally 
failed in completing one small section of this noble ©n- 
- terprise ? Nay, let us go further, and ask whether in 
nine cases in ten incorporated companies for great na- 
tional objects, have not failed, and been obliged at last to 
throw themselves on the charity of the state for support ? 
Have we forgotten the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- 
pany, and the loans of state credit ? And is it not noto- 
rious that at this moment the Ohio and Chesapeake Ca- 
nal Company is dependent on Congress for the ability to 
pay the interest on its Dutch loan ? Instances might be 
multiplied to tediousness were it necessary, but the re- 
collection of every man will supply them. 

In the face of these undeniable facts, we are not to be 
told, that we are for putting an end to all future public 
improvements, because we are opposed to incorporations. 
The imputation is as weak as it is unfounded, for the 
examples we have adduced, and could adduce by scores, 
sufficiently prove that incorporated companies are not in- 
dispensable, not even safe agents to depend upon for our 
public improvements. 

We will suppose, however, for the sake of argument, 
that the canals of New York had been the work of incor- 
porations, and not of the great body politic acting through 
its representatives. The charter being perpetual, the 
tolls would of course be also perpetual, and thus the peo- 
ple of this and other states making use of these conve- 
niences, would have paid a perpetual tax to the company, 
long after it had been amply remunerated for all the ex- 
pense and risk of constructing them. Being however 
the work of the people the case is far otherwise. The 
tolls are now rapidly extinguishing the canal debt ; in a 
few years it will be entirely paid, and the people will 
then enjoy this great public benefit, at the trifling cost of 
Vol. I. — 15 



170 POLITICAL WHITINGS OF 

keeping it in repair. On the other hand, the company 
would enjoy a perpetuity ; it would accumulate millions 
upon millions of the money of the people, and every 
attempt to diminish its exorbitant gains, would be resisted 
as an innovation on the sacred principle of " vested 
rights." 

Here then is exhibited a complete and fair exemplifi- 
cation of the relative advantages of a system of public 
improvements prosecuted by the people themselves, and 
one exclusively confined to incorporations. In the one 
case the people after paying for the improvement, enjoy 
it ever afterwards free of all taxes, except for repairs ; 
in the other they are saddled with a perpetual burden, 
and condemned to pay for it ten times over to the corpo- 
ration. It may be said, that there is no advantage in 
this exemption from toll to the state, by the state, since 
the money is paid by one hand and received by the other. 
But this is a view of the case entirely fallacious. The 
doctrine would equally apply to every species of taxation, 
and it might be asserted with equal truth, that the amount 
of public burdens is a matter of no sort of consequence, 
provided the money is again distributed among the peo- 
ple. This we know is one of the favourite fallacies of a 
particular school of political economists, but it will not 
do here we trust. According to them, every thing moves 
in a circle ; the money taken from the people is distri- 
buted among them again, and the circulation like that of 
the blood, gives life and vigour to the body politic. The 
mischief however is, that there is no certainty that the 
same man who pays five dollars, will ever receive it back 
again ; and that if he does, it is so long in coming, that 
« while the grass grows the steed may starve." Gener- 
ally speaking, every man's money is safest in his own 
pocket, and he does not require the aid of government in 
its distribution. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 171 



LITERARY CORPORATIONS. 

[From the Evening Post, November 2Q, 1834.] 
"When, a few days ago, we expressed the opinion, that 
so contrary to the principle of equal liberty is the prin- 
ciple of corporations, that a legislature, governed by sin- 
cere and enlightened sentiments of democracy, would 
refuse to incorporate even a college or a church, an ex- 
clamation of pious horror was raised by certain opposi- 
tion prints, which were very glad, no doubt, to seize the 
pretext of regard for the institutions and best interests of 
learning and religion, as an occasion for defending their 
favourite aristocratic system of monopolies and exclusive 
privileges, through the instrumentahty of which alone 
can they ever hope to break down the power of the 
people, and reduce the many into subserviency to the few. 
That what we said did not proceed from any want of 
veneration for the vast benefits to society of religion and 
learning, our readers will readily believe ; and, indeed, 
this might be inferred from the very ground on which 
we assail the principle of corporations, as hostile to the 
principle of equal freedom ; since we think it will not be 
denied that a free country, of all others, is most favour- 
able to the cause of religion and virtue, and to the devel- 
opment of the human mind. But if we look at the sub- 
ject of corporate institutions of learning merely in a poU- 
tico-economical point of view, we think it will be easy 
to discover that the interests of society are not promoted 
by giving charters of incorporation to seminaries of edu- 
cation. We shall make this the subject of our leading 
article this afternoon ; and in the first place let us pro- 
pose the following questions. 

Have the charters of incorporation bestowed on our 
colleges contributed, in general, to promote the ends of 



172 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

their institution ? Have they contributed to encourage 
the diligence, and to improve the abilities of the teach- 
ers? Have they directed the course of education towards 
objects more useful, both to the individual and to the 
public, than those to which it would naturally have gone 
of its own accord ? It would not seem very difficult to 
give at least a probable answer to each of these questions. 
In every profession, the exertion of the greater part of 
those who exercise it, is always in proportion to the ne- 
cessity they are under of making that exertion. This 
necessity is greatest with those to whom the emoluments 
of their profession are the only source from which they 
expect their fortune, or even their ordinary revenue and 
subsistence. In order to acquire this fortune, or even to 
get this subsistence, they must, in the course of a year, 
execute a certain quantity of work of a known value ; 
and where the competition is free, the rivalship of com- 
petitors, who are all endeavouring to justle one another 
out of employment, obliges every man to endeavour to 
execute his work with a certain degree of exactness. 
The greatness of the objects which are to be acquired by 
success in some particular professions, may, no doubt, 
sometimes animate the exertions of a few men of extra- 
ordinary spirit and ambition. Great objects, however, 
are evidently not necessary in order to create the great- 
est exertions. Rivalship and emulation render excellen- 
cy, even in mean professions, an object of ambition, and 
frequently occasion the very greatest exertions. Great 
objects, on the contrary, alone and unsupported by the 
necessity of application, have seldom been sufficient to 
occasion any considerable exertion. Success in the 
profession of the law leads to some very great objects of 
ambition ; and yet how few men, born to easy fortunes, 
have ever, in this country, been eminent in that profes- 
sion ! 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 173 

One of the effects of the charters of corporation be- 
stowed on colleges, is to give to those institutions the 
facility of acquiring, in their corporate capacity, and 
holding from generation to generation, a large amount of 
property. Out of the revenue of this property the sala- 
ries of professors are paid, either in whole or in part. 
Only a portion of the expenses of the institutions, in most 
cases, at least, is defrayed from the sum received for tui- 
tion. The subsistence of a professor, then, so far as it is 
defrayed out of the permanent revenue of the corpora- 
tion, is evidently derived from a fund altogether indepen- 
dent of his success and reputation in his particular pro- 
fession. His interest is, in this case, set as directly in 
opposition to his duty as it is possible to set it. It is the 
interest of every man to live as much at his ease as he 
can ; and if his emoluments are to be precisely the same 
whether he does or does not perform some very laborious 
duty, it is certainly his interest, at least as interest is 
vulgarly understood, either to neglect it altogether, or, if 
he is subject to some authority which will not suffer him 
to do this, to perform it in as careless and slovenly a man- 
ner as that authority will permit. If he is naturally ac- 
tive and a lover of labour, it is his interest to employ that 
activity in any way from which he can derive some ad- 
vantage, rather than in the performance of his duty, from 
which he can derive none. 

If the authority to which he is subject resides in the 
body corporate, the college, or university, of which he 
himself is a member, and in which the greater part of the 
other members are, like himself, persons who either are 
or ought to be teachers, they are likely to make a com- 
mon cause, to be all very indulgent to one another, and 
every man to consent that his neighbour may neglect his 
duty, provided he himself is allowed to neglect his own. 

If the authority to which he is subject resides, not so 
15* 



174 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

much in the body corporate of which he is a member, as 
in some other extraneous persons, in the governor, for 
example, or in a board of regents, it is not indeed in this 
case very likely that he will be suffered to neglect his 
duty altogether. All that such superiors, however, can 
force him to do, is to attend upon his pupils a certain num- 
ber of hours, that is, to give a certain number of lectures 
in the week, or in the year. What those lectures shall 
be, must still depend upon the diligence of the teacher ; 
and that diligence is as likely to be proportioned to the 
motives which he has for exerting it. An extraneous 
jurisdiction of this kind, besides, is liable to be exercised 
both ignorantly and capriciously. In its nature it is ar- 
bitrary and discretionary ; and the persons who exercise 
it, neither attending upon the lectures of the teachers 
themselves, nor perhaps understanding the sciences which 
it is their business to teach, are seldom capable of exer- 
cising it with judgment. From the insolence of office, 
too, they are frequently indifferent how they exercise it, 
and are very apt to censure or deprive of office wantonly 
and without just cause. The person subject to such juris- 
diction is necessarily degraded by it, and, instead of being 
one of the most respectable, is rendered one of the mean- 
est and most contemptible persons in society. It is by 
powerful protection only that he can effectually guard 
himself a^^ainst the bad usage to which he is at all times 
exposed ; and this protection he is most likely to gain, 
not by ability and diligence in his profession, but by obse- 
quiousness to the will of his superiors, and by being ready 
at all times to sacrifice to that will the rights, the interest, 
and the honour of the body corporate of which he is a 
member. Whoever has attended for any considerable 
time to the administration of a French university, must 
have had occasion to remark the effects which naturally 



WILLIAM LEGGETT, 175 

result from an arbitrary and extraneous jurisdiction of 
this kind. 

Whatever forces a certain number of students to any 
college or university, independent of the merit and repu- 
tation of the teachers, tends more or less to diminish the 
necessity of that merit and reputation. 

The privileges of graduates in arts, &c. when they can 
be obtained only by residing a certain number of years in 
certain universities, necessarily force a certain number 
of students to such universities, independent of the merit 
and reputation of the teachers. The privileges of gradu- 
ates are a sort of statutes of apprenticeship, which have 
contributed to the improvement of education, just as the 
other statutes of apprenticeship have to that of arts and 
manufactures. 

The discipline of corporate colleges is in general con- 
trived, not for the benefit of the students, but for the in- 
terest, or more properly speaking, for the ease of the 
masters. Its object is, in all cases, to maintain the au- 
thority ©f the master, and, whether he neglects or performs 
his duty, to oblige the students in all cases to behave to 
him as if he performed it with the greatest diligence and 
ability. It seems to presume perfect wisdom and virtue 
in the one order, and the greatest weakness and folly in 
the other. Where the masters, however, really perform 
their duty, there are no examples, I believe, that the 
greater part of the students ever neglect theirs. No 
discipline is ever requisite to force attendance upon lec- 
tures which are really worth attending, as is well known 
wherever any such lectures are given. 

Force and restraint may, no doubt, be in some degree 
requisite in order to oblige children, or very young boys, 
to attend to those parts of education which it is thought 
necessary for them to acquire during that early period of 
life ; but after twelve or thirteen years of age, provided 



176 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the master does his duty, force or restraint can scarce ever 
be necessary to carry on any part of education. Such 
is the generosity of the greater part of young men, that, 
so far from being disposed to neglect or despise the in- 
structions of their master, provided he shows some serious 
intention of being of use to them, they are generally in- 
clined to pardon a great deal of incorrectness in the per- 
formance of his duty, and sometimes even to conceal from 
the public a good deal of gross negligence. Those parts 
of education, it is to be observed, for the teaching of 
which there are no public institutions, are generally the 
best taught. Schools have no exclusive privileges. In 
order to obtain the honours of graduation, it is not neces- 
sary that a person should bring a certificate of his hav- 
ing studied a certain number of years at a public school. 
If upon examination he appears to understand what is 
taught there, no questions are asked about the place 
where he learnt it. 

In the attention which the ancient philosophers excit- 
ed, in the empire which they acquired over the opinions 
and principles of their auditors, in the faculty which they 
possessed of giving a certain tone and character to the 
conduct and conversation of those auditors ; they appear 
to have been much superior to any modern teachers. In 
modern times, the diligence of public teachers is more or 
less corrupted by the circumstances, which render them 
more or less independent of their success and reputation 
in their particular professions. Their salaries too put 
the private teacher, who would pretend to come into 
competition with them, in the same state with a mer- 
chant who attempts to trade without a bounty, in compe- 
tition with those who trade with a considerable one. If 
he sells his goods at nearly the same price, he cannot 
have the same profit, and poverty and beggary at least, 
if not bankruptcy and ruin, will infallibly be his lot. If 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 



177 



he attempts to sell them much dearer, he is likely to have 
so few customers that his circumstances will not be much 
mended. The " privileges " of graduation, besides, can 
be obtained only by attending the lectures of the incor- 
porated institutions. The most careful attendance upon 
the ablest instructions of any private teacher, cannot al- 
ways give any title to demand them. It is from these 
different causes that the private teacher of any of the 
sciences which are commonly taught in universities, is 
in modern times generally considered as in the very low- 
est order of men of letters. A man of real abilities can 
scarce find out a more humiliating or a more unprofita- 
ble employment to turn them to. The endowments of 
schools and colleges have, in this manner, not only cor- 
rupted the diligence of public teachers, but have rendered 
it almost impossible to have any good private ones. 

Were there no public institutions for education, no 
system, no science would be taught for which there was 
not some demand ; or which the circumstances of the 
times did not render it, either necessary, or convenient, or 
at least fashionable to learn. A private teacher could 
never find his account in teaching, either an exploded 
and antiquated system of a science acknowledged to be 
useful, or a science universally believed to be a mere use- 
less and pedantic heap of sophistry and nonsense. Such 
systems, such sciences, can subsist no where, but in 
those incorporated societies for education whose prospe- 
rity and revenue are in a great measure independent of 
their reputation, and altogether independent of their in- 
dustry. Were there no public institutions for education, 
a gentleman, after going through, with application and 
abilities, the most complete course of education which 
the circumstances of the times were supposed to afford, 
could not come into the world completely ignorant of 



178 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

every thing which is the common subject of conversation 
among gentlemen and men of the world. 

But in placing these speculations before our readers, 
do we not run some risk of being again called " a little 
free-trade crazy ?" Let those who cannot controvert the 
views and arguments ascribe them to lunacy, or idiocy, 
if they please. They are at all events the views and 
arguments, ay, and the very language, too, of Adam 
Smith, from whose immortal work on the Wealth of Na- 
tions we have borrowed these paragraphs, having copied 
them literally, with the exception of two or three slight 
verbal changes. 



CHARACTER OF MR. VAN BUREN. 

[From the Evening Post, January 19, 1835.] 
During the session of the national and state legisla- 
tures, so many subjects crowd upon our attention and 
occupy our columns, that we are frequently obliged to 
dismiss, with a very cursory and imperfect notice, mat- 
ters which intrinsically deserve careful and particular 
comment. This was the case with the letter of Mr. Ben- 
ton to the Democratic Convention of the State of Missis- 
sippi, declining their nomination of him as a candidate 
for Vice President, which we recently had the pleasure 
of laying before our readers. That letter so highly credi- 
table to Mr. Benton's mind and heart, so illustrative of his 
intelligence, firmness, candour, and sincerity, contained 
matters well worthy of being recommended to the con- 
sideration of the democracy in every part of the Union, 
by frequent and earnest editorial comments. 

The great object which Mr. Benton had in view, was 
to impress upon the attention of the people of the United 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 179 

States, the necessity of harmony and concert in relation 
to the candidates for the two highest offices of the Go- 
vernment, if they wish to succeed in those cardinal ob- 
jects of the republican party which are of incalculably 
more importance than ever can be, under any circum- 
stances, the gratification of mere personal preferences or 
sectional pride. To ensure this harmony, as far as lay 
in his own power, Mr. Benton did not merely exercise 
his eloquent pen in delineating the consequences which 
would almost inevitably flow from divided councils, but 
gave the strongest proof of his disinterestedness and mag- 
nanimity, by positively declining the high compliment 
which had been paid him, and refusing to suffer his name 
to be used as a candidate for Vice President, thus re- 
moving one circumstance which he feared might prove an 
obstacle to the desired concord. In thus doing, though 
sinister objects are of course imputed to him by those 
whose business and pleasure it is to revile all the promi- 
nent champions of democratic principles, yet no person 
of the least candour can help feeling, in his secret heart, 
that Mr. Benton has exhibited an evidence of singleness 
of motive and nobleness of character which entitle him 
to the increased admiration and respect, not only of every 
true republican, but of every man, whatever his political 
creed, who can appreciate the sacrifices of disinterested 
patriotism. 

It would have been highly pleasing to us, we are free to 
confess, if it had been considered quite compatible with 
the important end of a perfect union and harmony of 
purpose and action among the democracy in all parts of 
the country, to have seen Mr. Benton placed before the 
people as the republican candidate for Vice President. 
Well has he deserved such a mark of honour. His con- 
sistency, industry and zeal in the cause of the people ; 
his vigilance in detecting the arts of the aristocracy ; hia 



180 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

fearlessness in exposing them ; his readiness to stand 
forward, at all times, as the champion of democratic 
principles ; his eloquence ; his blunt and manly indepen- 
dence of character ; and the honest boldness with which 
his indignant feelings have always led him to rebuke 
those who seek personal aggrandizement at the expense 
of the equal rights of man : these are qualities which 
have won for Mr. Benton the general regard of the de- 
mocracy, and have caused many to desire that he might 
be nominated as the successor of Martin Van Buren in 
the place which the latter now so worthily fills. 

We do not know, however, whether the true interests 
of the people are not better answered by the course Mr. 
Benton has determined to pursue. Much as he deserves 
to be elevated to a higher post, we do not know whether 
he could well be spared from that where he is now sta- 
tioned. His talents, his firmness, his assiduity, his un- 
shrinking courage, his powerful eloquence, are needed in 
the Senate chamber. We do not question that he would 
adorn other stations ; but for that of Senator he seems 
peculiarly adapted. His masculine understanding, his 
resolute heart, his diligent and unwearied application, 
are now exerted in their proper sphere. To him public 
business seems not a task, but a pleasure ; and if he has am- 
bition (as no great mind is without it) his recent noble act 
of self-denial sufficiently proves that his at least is not the 
ambition which begins and ends and centres all in self, 
but that nobler kind which seeks to win its way through 
the laborious gradations of public service, and achieve its 
object by promoting the real good of his fellow-men. 

Those who duly consider Mr. Benton's letter, will find 
in it a conclusive answer to the clamorous objections 
which the aristocracy urge against Martin Van Buren. 
Most of these objections consist of the catchwords of 
party declamation, and do not deserve reply, until they 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 181 

can be shown to rest on some more substantial basis than 
the mere imputations of political hostility. The epithets 
of magician and intriguer have been reiterated against 
him, for may years, with all the earnestness of vitupera- 
tive malice ; but we are not aware that any proof has yet 
been exhibited, or even attempted, that he either practi- 
ces « arts inhibited," or that he winds his way to his ob- 
ject through the devious and covert mazes of subtlety 
and intrigue. We have been attentive readers, for a long 
time past, of the charges against Mr. Van Buren, and 
close observers of his public conduct ; and our respect for 
his talents, his integrity, and his patriotism, for the pu- 
rity of his motives, and the wisdom of his proceedings, 
has increased the more we have read and observed. 
Mere denunciation, however often reiterated, is not likely 
to injure a public man in the estimation of the intelligent 
citizens of this country. Had it been otherwise, we 
should have lacked the executive services of the illustri- 
ous Jefferson ; the reins of Government would never 
have been swayed by the patriot Jackson ; and Martin 
Van Buren would long since have been consigned to in- 
famy or oblivion. But happily " curses kill not ;" and 
till something more relative than gibes and anathemas 
of a factious aristocracy can be uttered against Mr. Van 
Buren, he stands in little danger, we think, of losing his 
strong hold on the affections of the democracy of the 
United States. 

The brilliant passage in Mr. Benton's letter, in rela- 
tion to the oft-repeated charge, that Mr. Van Buren is 
of the non-committal school, " a flippant phrase got by rote 
and parotted against him," must stand as a most tri- 
umphant and unanswerable vindication of his character 
from whatever is derogatory in the imputation. Never 
in any instance, where the obligations of honour or patri- 
otism required that he should commit himself, has Mr. 
Vol. L— -16 



182 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

Van Buren hesitated to speak or act. The public have 
not been left to guess his views on important questions. 
He has not, it is true, obtruded himself, uncalled for, be- 
fore the nation, and hastily volunteered opinions which he 
was afterwards glad to retract. He has not committed 
himself, like the leading demagogues worshipped by those 
who raise this senseless cry, for and against the United 
States Bank, for and against the American System, and 
for and against a dozen other important national measures. 
His first care has been to acquaint himself thoroughly 
with the merits of all great questions ; and once satisfied 
of the right, he has taken his ground boldly and openly, 
and maintained it firmly to the end. Hence the extra- 
ordinary consistency of his career. No politician in this 
country has pursued a more even and undeviating course. 
And this very consistency, amidst all the fluctuations of 
opinion and policy, and all the vicissitudes of public 
events, is as strong an evidence as can be adduced of 
the soundness of his motives, and the boldness of his 
character. 

Had Mr. Van Buren been distinguished by that 
species of timidity which is implied in the phrase non- 
committal, instead of pursuing his straight-forward course 
through good report and through evil report, he would 
have accommodated himself to the variations of public 
sentiment ; he would have trimmed his sail to the popu- 
lar breeze ; he would have veered and tacked, now steer- 
ing to this point, and now to that, until his course was as 
mazy as that of Mr. Webster or Mr. Clay. But timidity, 
or at least that species of timidity which springs from 
selfish ambition, is no part of the character of Mr. Van 
Buren. If he has ever hesitated, it has only been until 
he could satisfy himself what was demanded by the true 
interests of his country. " Interested timidity," says 
Burke, " disgraces as much in the cabinet, as personal 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 183 

timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to 
the well-being of our country, is heroic virtue." Tiiis is 
the extent of Mr. Van Buren's timidity — this is the only 
sense in which the cry of " non-committal " has any 
truth. 

There is another point in the Letter of Mr. Benton, 
to which we take pleasure in inviting the attention of our 
readers. It comes in here as an appropriate illustration 
of the absurdity of the charge to which we have just 
referred. We allude to the brief exposition it contains 
of Mr. Van Buren's views on the subject of the Bank 
system. What Mr. Benton says on that subject, must 
be looked upon as authentic. The nation has a right to 
consider it as said by Mr. Van Buren himself; for the 
circumstances under which this Letter was written, 
would have required of that gentleman, if his sentiments 
on any great question of public policy were inaccurately 
stated, to correct the error in as public a form as that in 
which it was made. The silence of Mr. Van Buren can- 
not therefore be cited as an instance of" non-committal ;" 
but, on the contrary, he must be looked upon as having 
early and decidedly taken his stand on a question already 
of exceeding interest in several states, and destined 
ere long to become a chief touchstone of democratic 
principles throughout the Union. We have great plea- 
sure, then, in begging our readers to take note that Mr. 
Van Buren " is a real hard-money man ; opposed to the 
paper system ; in favour of a national currency of gold ; 
in favour of an adequate silver currency for common use ; 
against the small note currency ; and in favour of con- 
fining bank notes to their appropriate sphere and original 
functions, that of large notes for large transactions and 
mercantile operations," 

Much has been said and written on the subject of the 
claims of New- York to supply an incumbent of the Pre- 



184 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

sidential chair. Our paper, not a great while ago, con- 
tained a most excellent article from the Harrisburg Re- 
porter, in which the propriety of nominating Mr. Van 
Buren on that ground was urged with singular eloquence 
and force. The article in question, as we have access to 
know, came from the pen of a disinterested and enlight- 
ened man, whose sentiments were the result of a broad 
and patriotic view of the whole subject, and had no other 
object than to advance the best interests of our common 
country. For our own part, we do not place our advo- 
cacy of Martin Van Buren on sectional grounds. It is 
the least of his claims, in our sense, that he drew his first 
breath on the soil of the Empire State. Show us a wor- 
thier man ; a man whose career has been more con- 
sistent, whose services have been more useful, whose 
principles have been more democratic, whose character 
has been freer from reproach ; show us a man more en- 
titled to the confidence of the democracy, possessing a 
larger share of their esteem, and more likely to carry 
out those great republican principles which have guided 
the administration of Andrew Jackson ; show us such 
a man, and we will to-morrow withdraw our support 
from Martin Van Buren and transfer it to that other and 
worthier one. But the nation contains no such man ; 
and we therefore advocate him, not as the favourite son 
of New-York, but, after General Jackson, as the foremost 
champion of the democracy of the United States, and 
the candidate intrinsically best entitled to unite all their 
suffrages. 

These are our sincere sentiments, governed by no per- 
sonal considerations, by no sectional pride. Were we a 
denizen of the south or of the west, Martin Van Buren 
would still be our choice. And the south and the west 
and the east will unite with the " great middle " in this 
preference, and, with one accordant voice, will call him 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 185 

to preside over the republic. Aristocratic railers may 
continue to shower their abuse on his head, but in vain. 
It is the fate of all prominent asserters of democratic 
principles to be maligned ; and if their rancour is fiercer 
towards Martin Van Buren than any other, it is only be- 
cause he is more strongly fixed in the affections of the 
people. Their attachment rests on the strong basis of 
his real worth. They look through the aspersions of his 
enemies, and read the truth for themselves, and the truth 
in relation to that distinguished man, needs only to be 
known to insure him general regard. And it is known. 
The people of this country are too clear-sighted to be 
misled by the mere clamour of calumny and detraction, 
and there is a quality in truth itself which is sure eventu- 
ally to triumph over mirepresentation. 

Truth, though it trouble some minds, 
Some wicked minds that are both dark and dangerous, 
Yet it preserves itself, comes off pure, innocent, 
And like the sun, though never so eclipsed, 
Must break in glory. 



THE JOINT-STOCK PARTNERSHIP LAW. 

[From the Evening' Post, January 23, 1835.] 
The Attorney General of this State, in his report on 
the subject of Corporations, which we published yester- 
day, says, « In the interpretation of the constitution, we 
ought, as far as possible, to enter into the mind and inten- 
tion of those who framed the instrument, and adopt that 
construction which will best fulfil the end for which it was 
made,'' We are very willing that the ninth section of 
the seventh article of the Constitution, which " makes 
the assent of two-thirds of the members elected to each 
branch of the legislature requisite to every bill creating, 
16* 



186 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

continuing, altering, or renewing any body politic or 
corporate," should be interpreted by this rule. The end 
for which that section was framed was distinctly ex- 
plained by Mr. King, chairman of the committee that 
introduced it. " The common law abhorred monopolies, ^^ 
he said, and the object of the section was " not to in- 
crease them, but diminish them as far as we can consist- 
ently with the preservation of vested rights." He there- 
fore had reported a clause requiring a two-thirds vote, 
not only for the creation of any new corporation, but for 
altering, continuing, or renewing any old one. But 
while he was desirous of placing this difficulty in the 
way of granting special charters of incorporation, on the 
ground that they were monopolies, he did not seek to ab- 
rogate or limit those general laws, then existing, under 
which voluntary corporations, for certain purposes, and 
to an indefinite number, might be formed by whomsoever 
chose to enter into them. Corporations, no matter for 
what purposes, which derived their existence from direct 
special legislation, were monopolies, and those the Con- 
stitution sought to diminish as far as was consistent with 
vested rights ; but corporations formed under laws which 
were of equal applicability and equally open to the whole 
community, were not considered monopolies, and there- 
fore no change or modification of those laws was pro- 
posed. 

We think the reader who carefully peruses the Report 
of the Convention which framed the Constitution, and 
strives "to enter into the mind and intention of those 
who framed the instrument, and adopt the construction 
which will best fulfil the end for which it was made,'' 
will agree with us in the view we have here taken. The 
grand general aim of the Constitution, also, to protect 
the community in their equal rights of person and pro- 
perty, ought to be kept constantly in sight ; as well as 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 187 

the grand democratic maxim of equality of political and 
civil rights, on which the Constitution and the laws all 
are founded. 

The Attorney General is of opinion that, accord- 
ing to the Constitution, " the legislature cannot now 
provide by general laws for the incorporation of volun- 
tary associations, but must act directly on every grant 
of corporate privileges, creating some one or more corpo- 
rations in particular," Yet he is of opinion, at the same 
time, that " the legislature may, by one act, create two 
or more corporate bodies.'' I'hat is to say, they may 
create ten thousand corporations by one act, if they 
please, only naming each particular set of individuals 
incorporated, but cannot pass a law establishing the 
general principles on which any set of individuals may 
form themselves into a corporation. The Constitution 
says, " the assent of two-thirds of the members elected 
to each branch of the legislature shall be requisite to 
every bill creating, continuing, altering, or renewing any 
body politic or corporate." If every hill creating any 
body politic, may mean a bill creating a myriad of bo- 
dies politic, it may mean any thing. The object of the 
two-thirds provision was to insure separate and careful 
deliberation on every particular application for a special 
grant of corporate privileges. If a thousand applications 
may be huddled together, and one bill passed granting a 
corporate franchise to all, the intention of the framers of 
the Constitution is more effectually overleaped than it 
possibly could be by a bill establishing the general princi- 
ple* and conditions under which any association of men 
might assume and exercise corporate powers. But the 
Constitution, in the Attorney General's plastic hand, is 
a mere nose of wax, and is moulded into what shape he 
pleases. 

The thirteenth section of the seventeenth article of 



188 POLITICAL WRITINQS OF 

the Constitution continued in force all laws then exist- 
ing which were not repugnant to any of its provisions ; 
but all laws or parts of laws repugnant to the Con- 
stitution were by that instrument abrogated. At the 
time the Constitution went into effect, general laws 
were in operation, under which corporations, for a va- 
riety of purposes might be created, without the direct 
intervention of the legislature. The Attorney General 
says, " the several laws providing for the creation of cor- 
porate bodies, without a special grant from the legisla- 
ture, have been acted upon for the twelve years which 
have elapsed since this part of the Constitution went 
into operation, and it is believed that the validity of 
those laws, or the right to form associations under them, 
has never been seriously questioned." If those laws are 
valid, which we do not doubt, it is because they are not 
repugnant to the Constitution. But it seems, by the 
Attorney General's reasoning, that a law now passed, 
though by a two-thirds vote, and for precisely the same 
objects, and expressed in the same terms, would be re- 
pugnant to the Constitution. That is to say, a principle 
which was perfectly consistent with the Constitution in 
1828, is totally contrary to it in 1834. For example, if 
the legislature, at its present session, should repeal one of 
those laws under which corporations may now be formed 
without a direct act, and the next legislature, convinced 
that the law had been useful, and that the repeal of it was 
unwise, should repass it by a vote of two-thirds of each 
House, it would not be valid, because it would be repug- 
nant to the Constitution. It had been quite constitu- 
tional a year before, but though the Constitution in the 
meanwhile had undergone no change, and the law was 
revived in precisely the same words as before, it would 
be wholly null and void. We confess we cannot give 
our judgment up to such reasoning as this. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 189 

The general laws under which corporations were form- 
ed without special legislation prior to the adoption of the 
Constitution, were abrogated by that instrument, if they 
were repugnant to any of its provisions ; and if they were 
not repugnant to any of its provisions, neither would a 
law at this day be, framed on the same principles and in 
corresponding terms. The Constitution makes a vote of 
two-thirds necessary to create any body pohtic, that is 
any one body politic, on the ground that partial legislation, 
giving special privileges to particular individuals, par- 
takes of the character of monopoly ; but it does not even 
make a two-thirds vote necessary to pass a law, general 
in its provisions, and calculated for the equal good of 
the whole community. A general law of joint-stock 
partnerships would not be a law " creating a body poli- 
tic." But when A, B, and C, wish to be erected into a 
corporation, and have particular privileges conferred up- 
on them, the legislature are hindered by the constitution 
from granting their prayer, unless two-thirds of the 
whole number elected think it worthy of their assent. 

If we " enter into the mind and intention of those who 
framed the instrument," we shall find that this condition 
of the assent of two-thirds was stipulated for the express 
purpose of preventing special acts of incorporation from 
being passed, except where the reasons for them were 
very cogent. If we then examine the acts of the very 
first session of the legislature after the Constitution went 
into eflfect, we shall find that so ineffectual was this pro- 
vision for the purpose intended, that there were thirty- 
nine new private companies incorporated, and numerous 
acts passed amending and enlarging previous charters. 
But while this two-thirds check (which proved in effect 
to be no check at all) was established for the reason that 
« the multiplication of corporations was an evil," and 
that it was the duty of the Convention " not to increase 



190 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

them but diminish them," no step was taken to limit the 
number of voluntary corporations which the spirit of en- 
terprise and competition might cause to spring into ex- 
istence under the general laws. The reason was, no 
doubt, that these were not considered an evil. A grant 
of special privileges to a particular set of men was consi- 
dered an " abhorred monopoly ;" but a general law of 
joint-stock partnerships, for the mere facilitation of cer- 
tain pursuits, of which all men alike might avail them- 
selves, was not a monopoly. Those who " enter into 
the mind and intention of the framers of the Constitu- 
tion," will arrive, we think, at a very different conclu- 
sion from that of the Attorney General. It would be a 
singular circumstance, truly, if the Convention had fast- 
ened, eternally and irremediably, a most odious and op- 
pressive system of monopolies on the free people of this 
state, by the very provision which they framed with the 
avowed purpose of diminishing these monopolies as far as 
they could consistently with the preservation of vested 
rights. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 191 



THE JOINT-STOCK PARTNERSHIP LAW. 

[From the Evening Post, January 26, 1835.] 
There was one point in our argument, on Saturday, 
in relation to the Constitutional power of the legislature 
to pass a general joint-stock partnership law which we 
wish to modify ; namely, that it is competent for the 
legislature to pass such a law without the concurrence of 
two-thirds of the members elected to each branch. This 
slipped from us inadvertently, and in positive, instead of 
hypothetic language. More mature deliberation has 
satisfied us that a vote of two-thirds would be requisite to 
pass either a general or partial law. 

The great object of the section in the Constitution, in- 
deed, was very evidently to establish the necessity of the 
concurrence of two-thirds of the members elected on the 
subject of corporations. It was not to change the pre- 
vious practise in any other respect than as regards the 
extent of the majority. It was to secure upright and 
deliberate legislation ; to diminish the chances of corrup- 
tion ; to throw a strong impediment in the way of the 
log-rolling system. 

If the language of the Constitution required the assent 
of two-thirds of the legislature for every bill creating any 
body, or bodies, politic or corporate, we fancy that the 
competency of the legislature to pass a general law, de- 
fining the principles and establishing the conditions on 
which bodies politic or corporate might be formed, could 
not for a moment be doubted. Yet the Attorney General 
admits that the present phraseology, though in the singu- 
lar number, presents no bar to the creation of a plurality 
of corporations by one legislative act. He admits that 
the legislature may incorporate any number of associa- 
tions, even to the extent of including the whole popula- 



192 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

tion of the State, by a single bill. It seems to us that 
this admission gives up the whole question. If '* every 
bill creating any body politic," is equivalent to " every 
bill creating any number of bodies politic," it may surely 
also mean " every bill defining the terms on which any 
association of men may possess themselves of corporate 
powers." 

If the legislature is not required to act separately on 
every single question of creating a body politic, but may 
by one vote, provided it has the requisite majority, cre- 
ate a million of bodies politic, it is not easy to perceive 
how the powers of the legislature on the subject of 
granting corporate privileges are at all modified or re- 
strained by the present Constitution, except simply as to 
what shall constitute a valid majority on such questions. 
Indeed, the Attorney General seems so naturally to have 
come to this conclusion, that he expresses it in so many 
words. He says, the Constitution only prescribes the 
number of votes necessary to every bill, " leaving all 
other questions about the passing of such laws as they 
stood before, to the discretion of the legislature." The 
legislature have a right now to pass any law whatever 
respecting corporations by a vote of two-thirds of all the 
members, which it before had by a simple majority of 
the members present. Whenever we have a vote of two- 
thirds the Constitutional requirement is complied with ; 
and if a general law of joint-stock partnerships is objec- 
tionable, it is on grounds distinct from those presented by 
the language of the ninth section of the seventh article 
of the Constitution. 

That objections of this kind existed in the Attorney 
General's mind is plainly to be inferred from some of his 
remarks. Thus he argues that if the legislature can 
provide by general laws for the incorporation of such 
persons as shall associate for any particular purpose, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 193 

though " both useful and harmless," "• it can, in like man- 
ner provide for the incorporation of such persons as may 
associate for the purpose of carrying on the business of 
banking, insurance, or receiving and executing trusts." 
This, we apprehend, is the grand difficulty. A general 
law of joint-stock partnerships would do away with all 
necessity or excuse for interested applicants assembling 
at Albany every winter to use that peculiar species of 
argument with legislators and " leading party men" in 
favour of their schemes, which it is notorious has hereto- 
fore been used to a prodigious extent, and which, with 
very many men, constitutes the main ground of their 
desire to get into the legislature. 

The Attorney General devotes a portion of his report 
to a eulogy on corporations, and repeats the old cant 
about their furnishing " the best means for aggregating 
the necessary amount of capital for the rapid and full 
cZeveZopmeM^of the resources of the State." If this rapid 
development is really so desirable an object, is it more 
likely to take place through the agency of special corpo- 
rations, or through the means of a law which opens the 
the field of competition to the whole community ? But 
the Attorney General admits that " there is an admixture 
of evil in almost every grant of corporate privileges." 
And what is this admixture of evil ? It is, chiefly, that, 
under the present system of granting charters, they par- 
take of the character of monopoly — they confer powers 
on a few privileged individuals which are taken, or at any 
rate withheld, from the great body of the people. Create 
a general law, under which any set of men may form 
themselves into a body corporate, and you at once take 
from such associations the chief admixture of evil. 

The Attorney General admits, that, on the subject of 
Colleges the legislature has not acted upon his doctrine, 
and that the Revisers do not seem even to have dreamt 
Vol. I — 17 



194 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

of his construction. With all deference to the Attorney 
General, the Revisers are much higher legal authority 
than he can with any sort of propriety claim to be. But 
let us try his views on their own merits, and to do so, we 
may test the applicability of his rule to other subjects. 
Abundant opportunities of testing its soundness in this 
way are presented by the Constitution. The very sec- 
tion under consideration requires the assent of two-thirds 
of the legislature " to every bill appropriating the public 
moneys or property for local or private purposes." Now, 
what is more common than, after deciding on the whole 
principle of an appropriation, to refer the matter to Com- 
missioners, to the Comptroller, or to some other public 
officer, to expend and apply the money in a certain man- 
ner, to take bonds for its payment, and even proofs of its 
amount. We do not say that such legislation is not some- 
times improper, but we apprehend it will hardly be called 
unconstitutional. Laws making appropriations for pri- 
vate purposes, on general principles, necessarily leave 
something to the discretion of the Commissioners to 
whom the carrying those laws into effect is entrusted ; 
but in the case of a law fixing the principles and condi- 
tions on which any set of individuals might become a 
body politic, nothing need be left to discretion. Under 
such a law, individuals give notification of their intention 
in a certain specified way, file certain papers with a spe- 
cified officer, and straightway they become a corporate 
partnership. The legislature has the undoubted power 
to create those individuals a body politic absolutely and 
unqualifiedly. It is apprehended that those who have the 
power to do any thing absolutely and unqualifiedly, have 
the power to do it on conditions. The greater power 
includes the less, or if the Attorney General pleases, a 
power to sell includes a power to mortgage. 

If this doctrine is unsound— if the views of the Attor- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 195 

ney General are right throughout, then that officer has 
the merit of abrogating, by a single exercise of his pen, 
the corporate powers, not only of all the colleges and 
academies which have gone into exercise under the Re- 
vised Statutes, but also nearly all our banks and other 
moneyed corporations, for their charters have been gener- 
ally granted on certain conditions relative to opening 
their books, distributing the stock, paying in the capital, 
and filing an affidavit that the capital had been paid in. 
The appointment of Commissioners may very well come 
within the Attorney General's rules, which prohibit the 
legislature from delegating any discretionary power. 

The Attorney General, in attempting to break down 
our anti-monopoly doctrines, may get into more difficulty 
than he seems to be aware of. His arguments against a 
general law of joint-stock partnerships, on the ground that 
such a law would be a delegation of power to others to 
do what the Constitution requires should be done directly 
by the legislature, and by a two-thirds vote, bear with 
greater force against the system he applauds than that 
which he condemns. He says, in effect, chartered pri- 
vileges must be distributed by the legislature itself to a 
favoured few, and cannot be granted to all by a general 
law, because the legislature cannot delegate its power. 
But at the same time the legislature does delegate its 
power, in every charter of incorporation it passes, to dis- 
tribute the stock among such favoured individuals as 
certain Commissioners may select, and the power delegat- 
ed is rendered great by reason of these legislative fa- 
vours being withheld from the great body of the people. 
These inconsistencies will not tend to convince the peo- 
ple that a general joint-stock partnership law is not 
needed, though it may satisfy them that there is some 
occasion for a better expounder of the laws already in 
existence. 



196 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

REPLY TO THE CHARGE OF LUNACY. 

[Fro7n the Evening Post, Jan. 30, 1835.] 
The Bank tory presses originated the imputation of 
lunacy against the conductors of this journal, and the 
echoes of the Albany Argus have caught up the cry, and 
rung the changes upon it, until very possibly many of 
their readers, who do not read the Evening Post, may 
suppose it has some foundation in truth. One good-natur- 
ed editor in Connecticut, we perceive, has taken the matter 
up quite seriously in our defence, and seeks to prove 
that we are not crazy in the full sense of the word, but 
only partially crazy, or suffering under a species of mo- 
nomania on the subject of monopolies. We are infinitely 
oblio^ed to our benevolent defender, and in return for his 
courtesy beg leave to assure him, that if our views on the 
subject of banks and corporations are evidence of the 
malady he imputes to us the disease is endemic in this 
state, and not even Governor Marcy's proposed magnifi- 
cent lunatic asylum would be capable of containing one 
hundredth part of the monomaniacs who now go at large, 
and are generally supposed to be in the full enjoyment of 
their senses. 

The charge of lunacy against an antagonist whose 
arguments are not refutable is neither a very new 
nor very ingenious device. Its novelty is on a par with 
its candour. It is a short and wholesale method of 
answering facts and reasonings, of which weak and per- 
verted minds have ever been ready to avail themselves, 
and it has ever been especially resorted to against such 
as have had the boldness to stand forward as the asserters 
of the principles of political and religious liberty. Those 
who are unable to refute your arguments, can at least 
sneer at their author ; and next to overthrowing an anta- 
gonist's doctrines, it is considered by many a desirable 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 197 

achievement to raise a laugh against himself. To be 
laughed at by the aristocracy, however, (and there are too 
many aristocrats who, to answer selfish purposes, rank 
themselves with the democracy) is the inevitable fate of 
all who earnestly strive to carry into full practical opera- 
tion the great principle of equal political, civil, and reli- 
gious rights. To escape *'the fool's dread laugh," is 
therefore not to be desired by those who are ardent and 
determined in the cause of true democratic principles. 
Such derision they will consider rather as evidence of the 
soundness of their views, and will be inclined to say with 
John Wesley, " God forbid that we should not be the 
laughing-stock of mankind !" 

But we put it to every reader seriously, whether, in all 
they have seen against the doctrines maintained by this 
paper on the subject of banks and corporations, they have 
yet found one single argument addressed to men's rea- 
sons, and tending to show that our views are wrong. 
They have read, doubtless, a deal of declamation about 
our ultraism and our Jacobinism ; they have seen us call- 
ed a Utopian, a disciple of Fanny Wright, an agrarian, a 
lunatic, and a dozen other hard names. They have seen 
it asserted that we are for overthrowing all the cherished 
institutions of society ; for breaking down the foundations 
of private right, sundering the marriage tie, and estab- 
lishing " a community of men, women, and property.'' 
But amidst all this declamation — amidst all these ground- 
less and heinous charges, have they yet found one editor 
who had the candour fairly to state our views, and meet 
them with calm and temperate argument ? If they have 
found such a one, they have been more fortunate than we. 

While the principles which we maintain are subject to 

such constant and wilful misrepresentations, it may not be 

without use frequently to repeat, in a brief form, the real 

objects for which we contend. All our agrarian, Utopian 

17* 



198 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

and anarchical views, then, are comprehended in the fol- 
lowing statement of the ends at which we aim. 

First, with regard to corporations generally : we con- 
tend that it is the duty of the legislature, in accordance 
with the principle of equal rights, on which this govern- 
ment is founded, to refrain, in all time to come, from 
granting any special or exclusive charters of incorpora- 
tion to any set of men, or for any purpose whatever ; but 
instead, to pass one general law, which will allow any set 
of men, who choose to associate together for any purpose, 
(banking alone temporarily excepted,) to form themselves 
into that convenient kind of partnership known by the 
name of corporation. 

Second, with regard to banking : we contend that 
suitable steps should be immediately taken by the legis- 
lature to place that branch of business on the same broad 
and equal basis ; that to this end, no more banks should 
be created or renewed ; that existing banks should be 
gradually curtailed of their privilege to issue small notes, 
until no bank notes of a smaller denomination than twenty 
dollars should be in circulation ; and that then the re- 
straining law should be repealed, and the community left 
as free to pursue the business of banking, as they now 
are to pursue any business whatever. 

We are not in favour of pulling down, or overthrowing, 
or harming, in any way, any existing institutions. Let 
them all live out their charters, if they do nothing in the 
meanwhile to forfeit them ; and as those charters should 
expire, the very same stockholders might, if they chose, 
associate themselves together in a voluntary corporation, 
under the proposed general law, and pursue their business 
without interruption, and without let or hinderance. 

The grand principle which we aim to establish is the 
principle of equal rights. The only material difference 
between the present system, and the system we propose. 



WILLIAM LE6GETT. 199 

is that instead of exclusive privileges, or particular facil- 
ities and immunities, being dealt out to particular sets of 
individuals by the legislature, all kinds of business would 
be thrown open to free and full competition, and all classes 
and conditions of men would have restored to them those 
equal rights which the system of granting special char- 
ters of incorporation has been the means of filching from 
them. 

All our Utopianism, Jacobinism, Agrarianism, Fanny 
Wright-ism, Jack Cade-ism ; and a dozen other isms im- 
puted to us, have this extent, no more. It would argue 
that there was something very rotten in the democracy 
of the present day, if for entertaining and strenuously 
asserting such views, the conductors of a public journal, 
whose business and pride it is to maintain democratic 
principles, should be generally supposed to labour under 
mental derangement. If this is lunacy, it is at all events 
such lunacy as passed for sound and excellent sense in 
Thomas Jefferson. The sum of a good government, as 
described by that illustrious champion of democracy, is all 
we aim at — " a wise and frugal government, which shall 
restrain men from injuring one another ; shall leave them 
otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry 
and improvement ; and shall not take from the mouth of 
labour the bread it has earned." 



THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. 

[From the Evening Post, February 3, 1835.] 
It is a good old republican custom, sometimes, nay 
often, to call the attention of the people to the conduct of 
the different branches of their Government, leeislatlve, as 
well as executive and judicial. The people, whose pro- 
vince and whose duty it is to stand sentinel over their 



200 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

rights, and over that Constitution which was devised sole- 
ly for their security, should never sleep on their posts, for 
the encroachments of power are like the pestilence, that 
walketh in darkness, and no one can tell when they will 
come. 

The present organization and late course of the Senate 
of the United States are, in our opinion, serious subjects 
for the deep consideration of all who value the represen- 
tative principle in its purity, or who look to the true spi- 
rit of the Constitution. A majority of the states and 
the people is represented by a minority of that body , the 
majority of which is acting in defiance of both. This 
majority is enabled to carry its measures by the aid alone 
of those members who are acting entirely independent 
of any other impulse than that of their own sovereign will. 
While these Senators are pretending to stickle for the 
rights of the states, they are setting at naught the au- 
thority of those very states, and in the language of Mr. 
Madison, instead of '* giving to the State Governments 
such an agency in the formation of the Federal Govern- 
ment as must secure the authority of the former," are de- 
priving them of all agency whatever, except that which 
is directly contrary to their instructions. 

This bold defiance of the public will, it is believed, is 
stimulated and sustained by the influence of a combina- 
tion of political enemies, who, while they differ, in their 
fundamental principles, agree in one point, that of oppos- 
ing the public voice and thwarting the wishes of the peo- 
ple. Living upon the reputation acquired by former servi- 
ces and trading on a stock of integrity long since exhaust- 
ed, these distinguished men, for distinguished they certain- 
ly are by political arts, if not by political wisdom, 
despairing it would seem of rising to the summit of their 
ambition on the billows of popular applause, are determi- 
ned to revenge their disappointment by opposing the pub- 
lic will. Certain little men around them, seduced by 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 201 

their example, or probably deluded by their eloquence, 
have caught the contagion of disobedience, and masking 
their personal insignificance behind the shield of sturdy 
independence, crow defiance in the teeth of their consti- 
tuents with all the arrogance of ill-founded self-sufficien- 
cy. They neither, forsooth, represent the states nor the 
people; they represent the Constitution of the United 
States, and like watchful guardians, prey upon the trea- 
sure they affect to guard. 

Under the scattered banner of these independent politi- 
cians, who trade on their own bottom, the majority of the 
Senate so constituted as we have stated, is gradually tak- 
ing the lead of the House of Representatives, the peculiar 
guardian of the people. Not content with assuming the 
right of impeachment, which is exclusively the constitu- 
tional prerogative of the House of Representatives, it has 
constituted itself the grand inquest of the nation, which it 
no longer represents. It delegates its authority to itine- 
rant committees, which travel about during the recess of 
the Senate taking ex parte testimony against public and 
private individuals. It forestalls the action of the House 
of the people, the proper organ of the popular will, and 
contrary to established custom as well as obvious pro- 
priety, takes the lead in all those great national ques- 
tions which it was evidently the design of the Constitu- 
tion should be first proposed and decided in that body 
which most immediately emanates from the sovereign pow- 
er. There might be sufficient grounds of justification for 
the majority of the Senate representing a minority of the 
states, were they to confine themselves to assuming the 
lead in questions purely constitutional. But they have 
widely overstepped the bounds of this, their peculiar pro- 
vince, and every day exhibit an unseemly ambition to go 
foremost in very thing. The Constitution, for example, 
says that " all bills for raising revenue shall originate in 



202 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the House of Representatives." This provision is m 
strict accordance with the first and best principles of lib- 
erty. It constitutes one of the great safeguards against 
the encroachments of power on the part of the less popu- 
lar branches of government, because it leaves it entirely 
to the immediate and peculiar representatives of the peo- 
ple to withhold appropriations for all purposes of which 
they do not approve. They are the proper guardians of 
the money of the people, and, being possessed of the ex- 
clusive right of originating revenue bills, can, as they 
ought to do, entirely control the ambition or prodigality 
of the other branches of Government. 

The reasons which govern in the case of raising, apply 
to the expenditure of the public money, or the voting of 
any moneys whatever, either out of the existing public 
funds or in anticipation of them. The vote for raising a 
revenue, and that for expending it, either before or after it 
is raised, seem so analagous in their application to the 
principles just laid down, that it appears difficult to sepa- 
rate them. Both should originate in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, and be sanctioned by it, before being taken up 
by the Senate, whose example and influence operating on 
the former, might improperly control its action, and 
cause it to lose sight of its responsibility to the people. 
In one word, we doubt the right of the Senate to vote 
any appropriation of the people's money, except it be 
first sanctioned by the House of Representatives. 

The Senate has consumed a considerable portion of 
the present session in debating a bill for the appropria- 
tion of five millions of the public money, to be raised 
from the people, for the payment of certain unliquidated 
demands on the French Government. The question of 
national obligation to pay this money is of no conse- 
quence to this argument, and therefore we pass it by. 
We would only ask whether a bill to pay money, which, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 203 

if paid at all, must be raised by a revenue bill, is not, if 
not a revenue bill, at least its legitimate father ? So far 
as the sanction of the Senate goes, it is an application of 
the public money which can be raised in no other way 
than by a revenue bill. It seems to us that if the Senate 
can originate the one, they can the other with quite as 
much reason. The principle is much the same, and 
there is strong ground for believing that the spirit, if not 
the letter of the Constitution, includes both the raising 
and the expenditure of the public revenues. 

What would be the use of this provision otherwise ? 
Had it been entirely omitted in the Constitution, the 
Senate could no more have raised a revenue without the 
assent of the other House than it can now. The object 
was, that as the people pay the revenue, their immediate 
representatives, acting it is to be presumed in conformity 
with their will, should have the first say in the business. 
It was to secure to the people, as far as possible, a direct 
controul over the expenditures of the government, by giv- 
ing them a right of first deciding on their propriety or 
necessity. Do not precisely the same reasons apply to 
the assumption of the Senate to appropriate five millions 
of the money of the people, which can only be provided 
for by a revenue bill ? Has the voice of the people, or of 
their representatives been heard, or their opinions ascer- 
tained through the medium of their appropriate organs ? 
Certainly not. Yet the bill is jogging on in the march 
of wild legislation, and so far as the decision of the Senate 
can be anticipated, and so far as that decision is to go, the 
people are^to be saddled with five millions of debt at the pre- 
sent time besides ten times that sum in future, by a bill ori- 
ginating in the Senate, which, though not a revenue bill, 
involves the direct necessity of" raising a revenue !" 

We have no idea that any thing we or the people may 
say on this or any other encroachment of the Senate, will 



204 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

have any influence on the majority of these lordly contem- 
ners of the popular will. Underpretence of vindicating the 
Constitution, they may violate its letter and spirit at 
pleasure, and during six years at least, enjoy the enviable 
satisfaction of " defending the people from their own 
worst enemies, themselves." Still there may be some 
little use in agitating the subject of senatorial assumption 
— we will not call them by so harsh a name as usurpa- 
tions — if it be only that of awakening the sleeping dig- 
nity of the House of Representatives to a recollection of 
its ancient precedence in all money matters at least. 
We take it that this is a popular government, and that 
all questions in which the people are deeply and exten- 
sively interested, and most especially all those involv- 
ing expenditures of money, should be first passed upon by 
those most likely to feel and obey the impulse of the pop- 
ular will. 



GOVERNOR McDUFFIE'S MESSAGE. 

[From the Evening Post, February 10, 1835.] 
Governor McDuffie, in his late message to the Le- 
gislature of South Carolina, has promulgated various er- 
rors in relation to the views and principles of the demo- 
cracy of the middle and northern states, which might 
excite astonishment at his ignorance, or regret at his 
insincerity, did we not know that they are founded on 
the misrepresentations of the Bank tory organs of this 
part of the world. Great pains have been taken by 
these to persuade the people of the south, that all the 
violent anathemas uttered against the system of slavery, 
by enthusiasts and fanatics in this quarter, and all their 
dangerous zeal for immediate emancipation, originate 
with the democracy. The charge of agrarianism, also, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 205 

which has with such marvellous propriety been urged 
against this journal, because it supports the doctrine, not 
of an equalization of property, which is an impracticable 
absurdity, but because it maintains the principle of equal 
political rights, seems to have excited the sensitive ap- 
prehensions of the Governor of South Carolina, and 
prompted him to the utterance of sentiments which we 
are sorry to see avowed on such a public and grave oc- 
casion, as that of addressing the legislature in his official 
capacity. 

We must beg leave to set Governor McDuffie right 
on these points. In the first place, what is called agrari- 
anism by the Bank tory presses is nothing more than tke 
great principle which has always been maintained with 
peculiar earnestness by the southern states, and most es- 
pecially by Virginia and South Carohna. It is simply an 
opposition to all partial and exclusive legislation, which 
gives to one profession, one class of industry, one section 
of the Union, or one portion of the people, privileges and 
advantages denied to the others, or of which, from the 
nature of their situation and circumstances, they cannot 
partake. It is opposition to bounties, protections, incor- 
porations, and perpetuities of all kinds, under whatever 
mask they may present themselves. It is neither more 
nor less in short, than a denial of the legislative authority 
to grant any partial or exclusive privileges under pre- 
tence of the " general welfare," the *' wants of the com- 
munity," " sound policy," "sound action," "developing 
the resources and stimulating the industry of the com- 
munit}^," or any other undefinable pretence, resorted to 
as a subterfuge by avarice and ambition. This is what 
the whig papers, as they style themselves, hold up to the 
South as a dngerous doctrine, calculated to unsettle the 
whole system of social organization, and subject the rights 

Vol. I.— 18 



206 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

of property to the arbitrary violence of a hungry and ra- 
pacious populace ! 

We would ask Governor McDuffie if this is not, to all 
intents and purposes, the doctrine of those who main- 
tained the independent authority of the states, in all 
points where it was not voluntarily and specifically sur- 
rendered to the Federal Government ? Did they not 
repudiate and deny the power of that government to 
grant charters of incorporation ? And when the Conven- 
tion which formed the Constitution of the United States 
rejected the plan of a national or consolidated govern- 
ment, was it not mainly on the ground that it would 
place the states, and what is the same thing, the people 
of the states, wholly at the mercy of a power, which 
might, if it pleased, under the specious pretext of the 
" public welfare," sacrifice the interests of one state, or 
one section, to those of another, and thus introduce a 
system of partial and exclusive legislation ? If such a 
system, adopted by the Federal Government, would be 
injurious to the rights of the states ; so is it now when 
adopted by a state legislature towards the people of a state 
just as injurious to the rights and liberties of the great 
majority, because it is the very essence of such privileges, 
that, to be worth having, they must of necessity be con- 
fined to a small minority. Governor McDuffie cries 
out against the oppressions inflicted on a minority of the 
states, by a partial system of federal legislation, and the 
democracy of the north exclaim against a similar system 
adopted by our own legislatures to the prejudice of the 
rights of a majority of the people. Which has the broad- 
est ground of action, he who maintains the rights of the 
few or he who maintains the rights of the many, in a 
government the first principle of which is, that within the 
limits of the Constitution, the majority of the poeple 
must and ought to govern ? 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 207 

Governor McDuffie is still more misled in his ideas of 
the part taken by the democracy of this and the eastern 
states in the mad and violent schemes of the immediate 
abolitionists, as they are called. He may be assured that 
the abettors and supporters of Garrison, and other itine- 
rant orators who go about stigmatizing the people of the 
south as " men stealers," are not the organs or instru- 
ments of the democracy of the north, but of the aristo- 
cracy — of that party which has always been in favour of 
encroaching on the rights of the white labourers of this 
quarter. It is so in Europe, and so is it here. There, 
the most violent opponents of the rights of the people of 
England, are the most loud in their exclamations against 
the wrongs of the people of Africa, as if they sought to 
quiet their consciences, for oppressing one colour, by be- 
coming the advocates of the freedom of the other. Da- 
niel O'Connell is one of the few exceptions, and even he, 
in one of his speeches, with the keenest and most bitter 
irony, taunted these one-sided philanthropists with per- 
petuating the long enduring system of oppression in Ire- 
land, while they were affecting the tenderest sympathy for 
the blacks of the West Indies. Was Rufus King, the 
great leader on the Missouri question, a representative of 
the democracy of the north 1 and were not the interests 
of the planters of the south sustained by the democracy 
alone ? 

Governor McDuffie may make himself perfectly easy 
on the score of the democracy of the north. They are 
not agrarians, nor fanatics, nor hypocrites. They make 
a trade neither of politics, nor philanthropy. They know 
well that admitting the slaves of the south to an equality 
of civil and social rights, however deeply it might affect 
the dignity and interests of the rich planters of that quar- 
ter, would operate quite as injuriously, if not more so, 
on themselves. The civil equality might affect both 



208 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

equally, but the social equality would operate mainly to 
the prejudice of the labouring classes among the demo- 
cracy of the north. It is here the emancipated slaves 
would seek a residence and employment, and aspire to 
the social equality they could never enjoy among their 
ancient masters. If they cannot bring themselves up ta 
the standard of the free labouring white men, they might 
pull the latter down to their own level, and thus lower 
the condition of the white labourer by association, if not 
by amalgamation. 

Not only this, but the labouring classes of the north, 
which constitute the great mass of the democracy, are 
not so short-sighted to consequences, that they cannot 
see, that the influx of such a vast number of emancipated 
slaves would go far to throw them out of employment, ^ 
or at least depreciate the value of labour to an extent 
that would be fatal to their prosperity. This they know, 
and this will forever prevent the democracy of the north i_ 
from advocating or encouraging any of those ill-judged, 
though possibly well-intended schemes for a general and 
immediate emancipation, or indeed for any emancipa- 
tion, that shall not both receive the sanction and pre- 
serve the rights of the planters of the south, and, at the 
same time, secure the democracy of the north against 
the injurious, if not fatal consequences, of a competition 
with the labour of millions of manumitted slaves. 

If any class of people in this quarter of the Union have 
an interest in this question, independent of the broad 
principle of humanity, it is the aristocracy. It is not 
those who labour and have an interest in keeping up its 
price, but those who employ labour and have an interest 
in depressing it. These last would receive all the bene- 
fits of a great influx of labourers, which would cause the 
supply to exceed the demand, and consequently depress 
the value of labour ; while the former would not only 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 209 

experience the degradation of this competition, but be- 
come eventually its victims. 

If we look back to the political history of this country, 
it will be found that the true democracy of the north has 
always supported the southern policy. They sustained 
every republican candidate for the Presidency from that 
section of the Union (for such we considered General 
Jackson) and their uniform co-operation distinctly indi- 
cates a near affinity of interests and principles between 
the republicans of the south and the democracy of the 
north. The latter will probably, at the ensuing Presi- 
dential election, put forward a candidate identified with 
these interests and principles, and will the former desert 
their old friends, who never deserted them 1 Will they 
aid in dividing and distracting the republican party by 
multiplying candidates, and thus by throwing the deci- 
sion upon Congress, pave the way for a successful in- 
trigue that may again cheat the people of their choice, 
and restore the ascendancy of an aristocratic faction 
, which has always been arrayed in opposition to their 
interests. 

Aeain we assure Governor McDuffie, and all those 
who imagine they see in the democracy of the north, the 
enemies to their rights of property, and the advocates of 
principles dangerous to the safety and prosperity of the 
planters of the south, that they may make themselves per- 
fectly easy on these heads. The danger is not in the 
democratic, but the aristocratic ascendancy. The whole 
is a scheme of a few ill-advised men, which certain whig 
politicians have used to set the republicans of the south 
against the democracy of the north, and thus, by dividing, 
conquer them both. 

18* 



210 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

THE FERRY MONOPOLY 

[From the Evening' Post, February 18, 1835.] 
We have received from Albany a copy of the Report 
of the Select Committee of the Assembly on the several 
petitions addressed to that body, relative to the establish- 
ment of additional ferries between this city and Brook- 
lyn. The petitioners ask that an intelligent and impar- 
tial board of commissioners may be appointed, with full 
powers to establish ferries between New-York anu Long 
Island, and that the present rates of ferriage be reduced. 
The fact that additional means of communication between 
the cities of New- York and Brooklyn are very much 
needed, that the present rates of ferriage are exorbitantly 
high, and the accommodations none of the best, is too no- 
torious for any one to deny. It is also a well -known 
fact, that numerous responsible persons have frequently 
and vainly petitioned the corporate authorities of this 
city for permission to establish another ferry, offering to 
bind themselves to furnish suitable accommodations, and 
to pay too a large sum for the desired " privilege." In 
consequence of the rejection of all these applications, 
resort has at last been had to the State Legislature. 

The power of establishing ferries over the East River 
is claimed by the corporate authorities of this city as a 
franchise conferred upon them by the ancient charters, 
and confirmed by various subsequent acts of state legisla- 
tion. 

The Report before us contends that *' the authority to 
establish ferries, granted to the city of New-York by 
charter, is to be considered, not as a monopoly for the 
purpose of revenue to the city, but as a delegated legisla- 
tive power, to be exercised with the same regard to the 
convenience of the public, as the legislature themselves 
would exercise it." They further argue that " although 



WILLIABI LEGGETT. 211 

the charter declares that the Common Council shall have 
the sole power of establishing ferries, yet that this only 
means that this power, as a delegajled autJiority, should be 
possesed by them, to the exclusion of any other office, tribu- 
nal, or ■public body/^ and that the power may be altered 
modified, repealed, or resumed, at the discretion of the le- 
gislature, always taking care, of course, it is to be pre- 
sumed, not to violate the public faith, as pledged by the 
acts of the Common Council in the exercise of the au- 
thority delegated to them. 

In the difficulties which citizens now experience to ob- 
tain reasonable facilities of communication between New- 
York and Brooklyn, a forcible illustration is afforded of 
the absurd and oppressive nature of monopolies. The 
question how far the power to regulate this matter has 
been granted to the Common Council of New-York, and 
how far it yet resides in the legislature of the State is 
one which we have not qualified ourselves to answr. It 
seems to us, however, from an attentive perusal of the Re- 
port, and a reference to some of the authorities there 
mentioned, that the positions assumed in that document 
are sound, and that the Legislature have a primary, una- 
lienated and supreme control over the whole matter in 
dispute. 

Be this as it may, the common sense view of the sub- 
ject plainly teaches that there ought to be no further le- 
gislative or municipal interference with the business of 
ferriage, than is demanded by a simple regard for public 
safety and convenience. We have not time to go into 
any argument to-day ; but on this subject, as on all others, 
we are the advocates of the principles of free trade. We 
would put no hinderance in the way of any man, or set of 
men, who should choose to undertake the business of fer- 
rying people across the river. The public interests would 
be best served by leaving the matter to regulate itself — or 



212 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

rather leaving it to be regulated by the laws of demand and 
supply. Free competition would do more to insure good 
accommodations, low prices, swift and safe boats, and 
civil attendants, than all the laws and charters which 
could ever be framed. The sheet of water which sepa- 
rates New-York from Brooklyn ought to be considered as 
a great highway, free to whomsoever should choose to 
travel on it, under no other restriction than complying 
with certain regulations for the mutual safety and con- 
venience of all : such regulations as are now enforced 
with regard to private vehicles in the streets and public 
roads. Yetjsince the corporate authorities choose to turn 
every business that they possibly can into a source of re- 
venue to the city, they might make a license necessary 
for ferry-boats, as is now done with regard to the Broad- 
way and Bowery omnibusses. Even this tax is an in- 
fringement of those sound principles of political economy 
which ought to govern in the matter ; but it could not 
be objected to in the case of ferries, while it is recogniz- 
ed in that of stage coaches. 

In making these remarks, we are by no means forgetful 
of the " chartered rights" of those who now have the " ex- 
elusive privilege" of carrying people to and fro between 
New-York and Brooklyn. Much as we detest the prin- 
ciple of such monopolies, we would by no means justify 
any invasion of the rights duly granted to them. The 
public faith is pledged, and, at the expense of any tem- 
porary inconvenience, let it be preserved inviolate. But 
though the Corporation ought not to invade the rights 
which have been foolishly granted, yet as far as they 
still retain any control over the subject, they might re- 
store to the community their natural rights, and leave 
those who wish to establish other ferries to make the 
best terms they can with the existing monopolies. Such 
a course is in reality dictated as well by selfish and local 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 213 

interests as by an enlarged and liberal view of the whole 
question. Every additional facility of access to this me- 
tropolis increases its general prosperity. We are av/are 
that pains have been taken to create a belief that the 
establishment of more ferries would injuriously affect the 
prices of property in the upper part of the city, and that 
narrow and selfish opposition has been thus engendered. 
But we think it could be demonstrated that every addi- 
tional means of communicating with Long Island will 
add to the prosperity of New-York. Be this as it may 
as respects owners of real estate, there can be no ques- 
tion that it is true with regard to the great body of the 
people. 



THE OPPOSITION IN THE SENATE. 

[From the Evening Post of Feb. 24, 1835.] 

The Senate of the United States occasionally presents 
a spectacle calculated to excite wonder, if not ridicule, at 
the inconsistencies of many of its distinguished leaders. 
On the one hand we see Mr. Calhoun, who has carried the 
doctrine of State Rights to the very verge of the greatest 
possible extreme, proposing a scheme of reform, which, if 
adopted, will place the states on the pension list of the 
United States for eight years to come at least. Of all 
the plans we have yet seen propounded by great states- 
men to increase the influence of the federal government, 
and to impoverish the people at the same time, that of 
raising a revenue only to distribute it again, minus the 
deduction the expenses of collecting and distributing, ap- 
pears to us the most preposterous. Besides this inevita- 
ble loss to the people, they will of necessity lose the use 
and the interest of this surplus revenue, which Mr. Cal- 



214 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

houn calculates at nine millions per annum, during the 
whole period which elapses from the time of paying to 
that of receiving it back again. The scheme of the hon- 
ourable Senator from South Carolina for enriching the 
States, reminds us of the honest trader who always sold 
his goods below cost, and lived by the loss. 

But there is no danger that those who pay the surplus 
of nine millions per annum for seven or eight years will 
ever see their money again. The current of taxation is 
like that of the Mississippi : it always runs one way ; it 
flows into the great ocean of public expenditure, and is 
lost in oblivion. The money returned to the States will 
never find its way into the pockets of its old owners again. 
It will come into the hands of certain officers of the 
State Governments, who will infallibly apply it to " the 
public good," that it to say, "supplying the wants of the 
community," "giving energy to public enterprise," " pro- 
viding new avenues for the surplus products of the coun- 
try," &c. &c. ; all which, done into plain practical Eng- 
lish, means nothing more or less than distributing the 
money contributed equally by the whole community in 
political bribes, or to further the schemes of a few specu- 
lating politicians, who make a trade of patriotism, and 
apply the confidence of a deceived people solely to their 
own interested purposes. 

In the midst of these extraordinary schemes of reform, 
supported by arguments equally extraordinary, we see a 
system of most extravagant expenditures adopted by these 
original reformers, for the encouragement of printing and 
bookmaking it would seem. The reformers are deter- 
mined that the people of the United States and their re- 
presentatives shall be enlightened. They have from time 
to time voted a few hundred thousands of dollars for 
printing vast numbers of speeches and reports which 
would take the people years to read, and ages to compre- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 215 

hend. In order to make sure of the people becoming 
thoroughly enlightened, they have distributed only the 
arguments on one side of the question, from a just appre- 
hension that if the other was presented they might be 
placed in the situation of a certain animal between two 
bundles of hay, and suffer an intellectual starvation in 
the midst of too great plenty. 

In addition to this expedient of economy, the reformers 
in the Senate have voted a few hundred thousands more 
for the double purpose of supplyihg themselves with 
books, and, as has been surmised, of enabling certain me- 
ritorious printers of newspapers to employ the money of 
the people in opposing the administration of their choice. 
Thus they kill two birds with one stone. They supply 
themselves with a library comprising a vast accumula- 
tion of useless knowledge, and thus enable themselves to 
legislate to the greatest advantage, and they at the same 
time foster the spirit of literature by multiplying books 
that nobody reads. Now, for our humble selves, we think 
this mode of fitting legislators for the performance of 
their duties, after they are chosen, is putting the cart 
before the horse. In our opinion they should by all 
means be qualified beforehand, as in all other trades, in 
which a man serves his apprenticeship before he sets up 
in business. This extempore education reminds us of the 
story of an honest Frenchman, who, having occasion for 
spiritual advice called several times on his bishop, but 
was always put oflf with the excuse that he was at his 
studies. Upon which, getting at last out of all patience, 
he exclaimed, " I wish to heaven our king would send us 
a bishop who had finished his education." 

We see no special propriety in legislators finishing their 
education at the expense of the people ; or if they will do 
this, it seems but just that the other functionaries of the 
government should be put on the same footing. It was 



216 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

a terrible infraction of the great precept of doing as we 
would be done by, to refuse the Attorney General an ap- 
propriation for law books, while Congress is every day 
voting itself a supply of books of legislation. It is ru- 
moured that more than one of the honourable members 
has set up a book store at the seat of government, and 
that others who have been overlooked by the people at 
the last election, intend commencing business at home, 
on the stock in trade acquired by a few years of services 
to the people. 

On the other hand, we see Mr. Clay and his band of 
reformers, strenuously opposing the increase of executive 
patronage, by advocating the principle of appointments 
for life, or at least during good behaviour. Does it not 
strike the honourable Senator that, if, as he presumes, the 
whole body of public officers are "the supple tools of Exe- 
cutive power," that these men, being entirely governed by 
motives of self-interest, will make much greater sacrifices 
for an appointment for life, or during good behaviour, 
than for one of four years, subject to the will of the Exe- 
cutive, or the vicissitudes of political changes ? If he 
looks into history, he will find the atrocities committed 
by kings and nobles to secure themselves the possession 
of hereditary honours and hereditary power, beyond all 
comparison greater than those of men struggling only for 
a temporary superiority. The greater the boon the 
greater the sacrifice; and a great man who would thwart 
the wishes of the people for the sake of a temporary 
office, might be tempted to plunge his country into all the 
horrors of a revolution to render the possession perma- 
nent. 

But what right does Mr. Clay brand the whole class 
of office holders, with being « the supple tools of Execu- 
tive power ? " Does he speak from his own experience, 
or is this high charge the result of his exalted opinion of 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 217 

human nature ? That distinguished person is himself at 
this moment in office, and has been nearly all his life 
seeking offices. We do not urge this as a reproach ; for 
situations of honour, emolument and trust, are objects not 
unworthy of the highest character in this country, and 
if they are gained by means and exertions becoming a 
man of principle and independence, they are badges of 
honour, not of disgrace. A gentleman once standing so 
high, and still standing high in the estimation of a con- 
siderable portion of this Union, ought to be above repeat- 
ing the miserable slang about office holders, with which 
every petty disappointed demagogue solaces his miseries, 
and assuages the aggravated inflammation of his political 
buffetings. It is unworth^y of him, and is an extravagant 
assumption. One great fault in the system of political 
ethics acted upon by Mr. Clay and his whig partizans, 
is that of underrating the virtue and intelligence of the 
people. They ascribe that to the influence of office hold- 
ers, which is in reality the result of public intelligence 
and feeling, and stigmatize as the corrupt instrument of 
" the supple tools of Executive power," v/hat in reality is 
nothing more than enlightened perception of their own 
rights and interests on the part of the people. Mr. Clay 
and his partizans have been defeated by the free people 
of the United States, and not by a combination of " sup- 
ple tools of Executive power." His own party once had 
the same means of corruption in their hands. Were they 
too pure to use them ; or were the people incorruptible ? 
Again we repeat, the slang is unworthy the high source 
whence it' emana.ted on this occasion. It is in fact a 
general and sweeping charge against the character of the 
people of the United States, because it directly intimates 
that they are all equally assailable by corruption, or that 
they are instruments in the bunds of " the supple tools of 
Executive pov/er." 
Vol. I 19 



218 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

But while expressing our just reprehension of this 
most ilhberal denunciation, we cannot forbear a burst of 
unfeigned pleasure at the assertion of the honourable 
Senator which follows. Mr. Clay insisted that, " Respon- 
sibility was as essential an ingredient of a free govern- 
ment, as the vital air which surrounds us was necessary 
to animal life. Every officer was responsible to the peo- 
ple ; all were public servants." We should like to have 
seen how the " responsible " Senators from New-Jersey, 
Alabama, Mississippi and North Carolina looked at re- 
ceiving such a lecture as this. It was a most unkind 
cut thus to tell them to their faces that they had been ex- 
isting for so long a time without the " vital air," which 
was " absolutely necessary for animal life," and that of 
consequence they "smelt of mortality." If they, or any 
one of them, except Mr. Frelinghuysen, ever forgive him, 
they are better Christians than we supposed. 

In the midst of these scenes, which are calculated to 
create a surmise that frequent disappointments, like too 
much learning, are apt to make men mad, we turn with 
fijreat pleasure to the manly, consistent, and straight- 
forward course of the distinguished Senator from Missouri, 
Colonel Benton. Vigorous, intelligent and indefatigable ; 
without fear and without reproach ; equally remarkable 
for the sagacity and clearness of his intellect, and the 
unfaltering industry of his research ; always ready, al- 
ways profound, and always irresistible, he marches 
straight forward, right into the trenches of his adversa- 
ries, and routs them from every fancied strong-hold they 
occupy. The Republic owes him much, and we trust 
that it will not be found unirrateful. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. - 219 



[From the Evening Post, March 6, 1835.] 
We devote the entire reading portion of our paper to- 
day, together with some additional columns borrowed 
from advertisements, to the proceedings of Congress on 
the two last days of the session. It will give our readers 
great pleasure to perceive that the protracted discussion 
in the House of Representatives on the subject of our 
differences with France, at last terminated in the unanu 
mous adoption of a resdution that the treaty with France 
ought to be maintained^ and its execution insisted on. Mr. 
CA3f BRELEXG has entitled himself to the greatest credit 
for his able, conciliatory and truly American course on 
this question. And of Mr. Adams we must say, also, 
that though not entirely free from his old trick of "dodg- 
ing," he behaved on this question, on the last day of the 
discussion, in a manner which, if it more frequently cha- 
racterized his conduct, would very materially increase his 
claims to the respect of his countrymen. 

That our readers may have before them the means of 
ascertaining what has been done and what left undone 
by Congress, we publish to-day a list of the bills which 
have received the assent of both branches of that body, 
and now only require the signature of the President to 
be laws of the land. A glance at this list will serve, 
more forcibly than any thing we can say, to show how 
shamefully the National Legislature have trifled away the 
session. But few of the important measures which the 
country looked for at their hands have been attended to. 
The hour of their dissolution arrived without their hav- 
ing consummated a tenth part of the business for which 
they convened. Never, since the adoption of the Consti- 
tution, was there a more utterly unprofitable session of 



\ 



220 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

Congress. The Senate, governed to the last by its fac- 
tious spirit — its ruling passion of hostility to the President 
and to the democracy of the country, strong even in death 
--r-did all in its power to embarrass the other House, and 
defeat those measures which are imperatively demanded 
by the posture of our Foreign affairs. 

It will be seen that in this venomous and spiteful tem- 
per that body voted against the appropriation of three 
millions to put the country in a posture of defence, and 
voted against it on the shallow pretence tha4; such an ap- 
propriation was placing both the sword and purse in the 
hands of the Executive ! A factious majority — among 
which we are glad to see the name of but one of those 
who have hitherto supported the administration, and sorry 
that that one is Judge White — have dared to take 
upon themselves the responsibility of defeating a bill ab- 
solutely indispensable in the present emergency to the 
safety of our country. We shall be mistaken, indeed, if 
public sentiment do not brand this proceeding with the 
name of infamy which it deserves. We look on each in- 
dividual who voted against that most just and wise and 
necessary appropriation, as guilty of httle less than trea- 
son. We ask on this subject, attention to the article 
from the Globe of yesterday, giving some account of the 
factious conduct of the Senate. 

The Judiciary bill, the prime object of which was to 
defeat the nomination of Mr. Taney, as a Judge of the 
Supreme Court, did not receive the concurrence of the 
House of Representatives. The debate on this subject 
will be found interesting. The National Intelligencer 
remarks that the nomination of Mr. Ta.vey was indefi- 
nitely postponed by the Senate in Executive session, on 
Tuesday evening. 

We rejoice that the insulting clause added by the Se- 
nate, on motion of Daniel Websteb, to the General Ap- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 221 

propriation bill, was indignantly rejected by the House. 
Mr. Adams did himself great credit by the spirit which 
he displayed on that occasion. We do not agree with 
him in the position that it is within the constitutional 
power of the President to fill the vacancy in the mission 
to England without the advice and consent of the Senate, 
but on the contrary we are at a loss to perceive how any 
intelhgent mind can find a shadow of authority for such 
a proceeding in the language of the Constitution, which 
to us seems most plainly^to withhold the power of appoint, 
ment from the President, without the concurrence of the 
Senate, except in a case which, as regards the embassy to 
England, does not now exist. But whether the Presi- 
dent has or has not the constitutional right toappoint a min- 
ister during the recess, the clause added to the appropria- 
tion bill was equally improper, and deserved the pointed 
condemnation which it received from the House. If the 
President has a right to appoint, the Senate have no busi- 
ness to limit the exercise of his constitutional powers : 
if he has not the right to appoint, they have no business 
to insert a clause of limitation under the presumption that 
he would exceed his constitutional powers. 

We have left ourselves room barely to ask the atten- 
tion of our readers to the exposition made by the Wash- 
ington Globe of Tuesday respecting the unworthy con- 
duct of the majority in the Senate on the subject of Mr. 
Benton's expunging resolution. This ignoble triumph, 
obtained by legislative trickery, will be of short duration. 

19* 



222 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



THE SENATE AND THE FRENCH QUESTION. 

[From the Evening Post of March 9, 1835.] 
All parties and all men in this country must unite in 
the opinion that the omission, on the part of Congress to 
provide for the national defence, in the present posture 
of public affairs, is deeply censurable. Fall the blame 
where it may, this is an instance of remissness which all 
must alike condemn. Difference of opinion may exist 
in alloting the censure, but there can be no difference as 
to the fact of the censure being deserved. Our relations 
with France are now in such a situation that it may be 
considered an even chance whether we shall have peace 
or war. Some of our best informed citizens, who have 
resided much abroad, and are intimately acquainted with 
the sentiments and temper of many of the leading mem- 
bers of the French Government on the subject of the in- 
demnity due to this country, consider w ar as more proba- 
ble than we have stated. But whatever may be the de- 
gree of probability, no one can shut his eyes to the fact 
that our relations with France are such as imperatively 
require that we should be prepared for hostilities. Our 
minister at Paris, in an official communication to his 
Government, has stated it as his deliberate opinion, that 
if the French Chamber of Deputies should again reject 
the bill of indemnity, it is highly probable that France 
would anticipate our reprisals by the seizure of our vessels 
in her ports, and an attack on our ships in the Mediterra. 
nean with a superior force. Her hostile measures in 
such an event would not be limited to these acts. We 
might hourly expect to hear of a French fleet upon our 
coast; and the first intelligence of their approach might 
be the booming of their cannon, as they poured their 
volleys into our unarmed fortresses ,and sweeping by them, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 223 

entered unresisted into our very harbours. Where then 
would be our forces to beat them back ? Where would 
be our navy, to meet them midway on the seas, and guard 
our shores from the ravages of the foe 1 Where would 
be our coast defences, to bar the entrance of hostile 
fleets ? Shall such a state of things arrive, and find us 
without an army ; with our ships of war dismantled at 
the docks, and our fortresses delapidated and unmanned ? 
Is the country to be thus taken by surprise, unprepared 
to strike a single blow for the maintainance of its vaunted 
freedom, and subject to be overrun and harried by an 
insolent foe ? And why must we run the hazard of this 
incalculable evil ? 

The obvious and only answer to this question is, be- 
cause the Senate of the United States did not choose to 
trust the spending of three millions of dollars for the na- 
tional defence to the discretion of the Chief Magistrate of 
the nation ! We see at the head of our Government a 
man recently elected to that exalted station by an over- 
whelming majority of the free suffrages of the people ; a 
man of unequalled military experience and sagacity ; a 
man who, since his first elevation to the highest office of 
the country, in all the difficult and trying questions on 
which he has been called to act, has so borne himself as 
to command, more and more, at each successive exhibi- 
tion of his character, the admiration, the esteem andrthe 
gratitude of the people. This is the man whom the Sen- 
ate would not trust with the expenditure of three millions 
of dollars, to put the country in an attitude of defence, 
if events should occur before the next session of Con- 
gress to render defence necessary. This is the length 
and the breadth and the depth of the question. The 
Senate have left the country defenceless, rather than 
trust the ordering of its defence to the wisdom and patri- 
otism of a Chief Magistrate who possesses, and has nobly 



224 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

earned, the people's unlimited confidence. Partizan 
newspapers and partizan orators may fume and vapour 
as they please ; but this is the naked simple fact. The 
Senate have incurred this tremendous responsibility ; and 
no art of sophistry, and no device of misrepresentation 
can shift it from their shoulders to those of the other 
branch of the national legislature. 

The very eagerness of the National Intelligencer to 
throw the blame of this most parracidal conduct on a 
distinguished member of the House of Representatives, 
shows the prophetic consciousness of guilt on the part of 
those Senators whose mouthpiece that unprincipled jour- 
nal is, that the people will judge rightly where the cen- 
sure belongs. It is all in vain to attempt to throw the 
odium on Mr. Cambreleng. Throughout the whole of 
this affair, that gentleman's conduct has been dictated 
by the truest patriotism and the most enlightened policy. 
From the first to the last, he evinced the strongest desire 
to merge considerations of party in the higher considera- 
tions of what was due to his entire country. Never did 
he speak in a loftier, more liberal, more conciliatory tone. 
He laboured earnestly, assiduously, successfully, to have 
such measures adopted as might properly speak the senti- 
ments of this great nation. To unite as many as possi- 
ble in such measures, he voluntarily and cheerfully gave 
up his resolution and adopted in place of it the language 
of an opponent. When that opponent then cavilled at 
his own terms, he modified them to obviate the new ob- 
jection. He seemed not to care on whom the honour of 
the proceeding should rest, so that the honour of the na- 
tion was asserted. In the same spirit, he introduced the 
proposition to appropriate three millions of dollars to pro- 
vide for the national defence. This proposition was 
carried by an immense majority, and among those who 
voted for it (to their honour be it spoken) were several 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 225 

prominent opponents of the administration. Tlie Senate 
rejected the appropriation — rejected it positively, entirely 

suggesting no amendment, proposing no alternative. 

The House again considered it, and again, by an undi- 
minished majority, declared in favour of the measure. 
Again the Senate, hy a party vote, rejected it ! — and still 
that body offered no substitute, and intimated no midway 
course. The House once more took up the subject, and 
after discussion, a third time decided, by a large majority, 
to adhere to the appropriation, and appointed a Com- 
mittee to confer with the Senate. Before that Committee 
and the Senate's Committee had come to any agree- 
ment on the question, the hour had passed on which the 
functions of the twenty-third Congress expired, and 
when the Committee of the House of Representatives 
returned to the Representative Chamber, they found that 
there was not a quorum present, and that several mem- 
bers who were present refused to vote on any question on 
the ground that their legislative functions had ceased. 
This is a brief statement of undeniable facts. Can there 
be any difficulty, then, in deciding where the censure of 
the people of the United States ought to fall ? By whose 
act has their country been left in a defenceless situation 
at a time when it is threatened with a foreign war, and 
when even now, perhaps, a French fleet is on its way to 
our shores ] No man, who regards truth, and whose 
mind is not darkened with the worst of prejudices, can 
fail to ascribe our deplorable situation to the conduct of 
the factious majority of the United States Senate. Thank 
heaven, the reign of terror is over ! 



226 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



UNCURRENT BANK NOTES. 

[From the Evening Post, March, 10, 1835.] 
We wish some public spirited man who has access to 
data that would afford a reasonable basis for a conjectural 
calculation, would furnish us with an estimate of the im- 
mense amount of money which is annually lost in this 
city, by the labouring classes, in the discount upon un- 
current bank notes in circulation. Do the mechanics 
and the labourers know, that every dollar which is paid 
in the discounting of uncurrent notes in Wall-street, is 
filched out of their pockets 1 That such is the fact is 
susceptible of the clearest demonstration. 

In the first place, the circulation of uncurrent bank 
notes is chiefly kept up by a direct and infamous fraud 
upon the working classes. It is a common practise with 
employers when they pay off their hands on Saturday, 
to go into Wall-street and purchase of some broker for 
the purpose, a lot of notes of depreciated value, varying 
from half to one and a half per cent, below par. These 
notes they palm off upon their workmen as money. If 
a master mechanic has a thousand dollars a week to pay 
to his hands, it is clear that he pockets every week by 
this operation some ten or fifteen dollars ; and it can be 
shown with equal clearness that those in his employment 
are defrauded out of this sum. If a man hesitates to take 
this depreciated paper, he is told that it passes as cur- 
rently as silver in payment of any thing he may wish to 
purchase ; and so, in truth, it does. Yet he could not 
exchange it for silver, without paying the broker a dis- 
count, and let him not imagine, though he may seem to 
pass it away to his grocer or his baker at par, that he 
does not lose this discount all the same. Nay, the me- 
chanic and labouring man whose employers are consci- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 227 

entious enough to pay them their wages in real money, 
bear tlieir full proportion of the loss on the uncurrent 
notes in circulation, equally with those to whom the de- 
preciated paper is paid. The entire siimpaidfor the dis- 
count of depreciated bank paper falls on the mechanics and 
labourers, and is wrung out of their sweat and toil. Nay 
more : they not only lose the amount which is actually paid 
for discount to the money changers, but they also pay a per 
centage on that amount equal to the average rate of profit 
which merchants charge on their goods. We can make 
this plain to the dullest apprehension. 

The labouring man, when he returns home of a Satur- 
day evening, with his week's wages in his pocket, in this 
depreciated paper, stops at his grocer's, and pays him the 
amount of his weekly bill. The grocer in the course of 
a few days pays this money away into the hands of the 
wholesale merchant from whom he purchases his commo- 
dities. The merchant, when a certain amount of this 
kind of paper has accumulated on his hands, sends it into 
Wall-street, and sells it to the brokers, and when his 
clerk returns, an entry is made in his books of the amount 
paid for discount. The sum total paid in the course of a 
year for the discount of depreciated paper forms an item 
of expense which is calculated as one of the elements in 
the cost of his goods. To pay for his goods he is obliged 
to buy bills of exchange, or in other words, to remit specie 
to Europe. Whatever this specie costs him, his goods 
cost him ; and he therefore looks upon the amount he 
had to pay to turn the uncurrent paper received from his 
customers into specie as a constituent part of the first 
cost of his merchandize. Upon the whole sum of the cost, 
thus ascertained, he puts a certain per centage profit, and 
fixes his prices accordingly. The retail trader then 
buying a lot of goods of him, pays him not only a pro- 
portional part of the discount which the wholesale mer- 



228 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

chant actually paid on his uncurrent paper, but a profit 
thereon. This, however, makes no difference to him, for 
he has only to put his own profit on above all, and let the 
loss fall on the labourer, when he comes for his tea and 
sugar and other little necessaries and comforts for his 
family. That this is a true, though homely exposition 
of the case, any body must see who will only give himself 
the trouble to think about it. 

The whole amount of uncurrent notes which pass 
through the broker's hands annually may be stated at a 
given sum, and the discount thereupon amounts, on an 
average to a given per-centage. This sum, whatever it 
is, (and it must be immense) is a tax on the business of 
the community, which each individual shuffles off his 
own shoulders on those of the persons next beneath him, 
and so it descends by gradation till it reaches the broad 
backs and hard hands of the mechanics and labourers, 
who produce all the wealth and bear all the burdens of 
society. 

But the mechanics and labourers have it in their power 
to rid themselves of this imposition. The task is very 
easy : it is only to learn the efficacy of the word COM- 
BINATION. There is a magic in that word, when 
rightly understood and employed, which will force the 
scrip nobility to do them justice, and yield them, without 
drawback and without cheatery, the full fruits of their 
toil. Let them inquire by what means it is that this 
immense amount of depreciated paper is kept in circula- 
tion. They will find it is chiefly through the instru- 
mentality of master-workmen and others having me- 
chanics and labourers in their employment. They will 
find that this wretched substitute for money is bought, for 
the express purpose of palming it off upon them as real 
value, while their task-masters and the brokers share the 
spoils between them. A mechanic dare not refuse to 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 229 

take the wretched trash ; because, if he does, he will be 
turned away to starve. But what a single mechanic 
may not be able to compass alone, could be easily effected 
by combination. Will the mechanics and labourers 
wait for eighteen months, in the hope that the juggling 
law now before the legislature will by that time go into 
operation, and rid them of the paper money curse ? Let 
them not rest in any such belief. Let them know their 
own strength and resolve to be imposed on no longer. 
Why are the producers of all the wealth of society the 
poorest, most despised and most down-trodden class of 
men ? Because they submit to be the dupes of the scrip 
nobility — because they are ignorant of their own strength. 
Let them combine together to demand whatever the plain 
principles of justice warrant, and we shall see what power 
there is which can deny them. 



THE LEGISLATION OF CONGRESS. 

[From the Evening Post, March 11, 1835.] 
We have been at the pains to count the number of acts 
passed by Congress at its last session. If we have made 
no mistake in our enumeration, they amount, in all, to 
one hundred and fifteen. Of these no less than eighty- 
four are of a private or local character, and in the re- 
maining thirty-one we do not perceive what there is of 
so intricate or difficult a character as to have required 
Congress to continue its legislative functions several hours 
beyond the period of its constitutional existence. Indeed, 
we do not know but that body would have continued 
making laws, or rather making speeches, until this time, 
had not the indecency of any farther violation of the con- 
stitution been prevented by the want of a quorum, which 
at last forced it to adjourn. 
Vol. L— 20 



230 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

We are not aware of any particular clause in the Con- 
stitution which ordains that Congress shall be the grand 
political arena of the country ; yet it seems, by the com- 
mon consent of all the members, to be so consideredy 
and their whole conduct is squared accordingly. It 
happens as one of the consequences of this construction, 
that the legislative business of the nation is generally 
put off to the latest period, and then huddled through 
and " slubbered o'er in haste," in the last three or four 
days of the session. This remark was particularly illus- 
trated by the last Congress. Every thing was crowded 
into the last few hours, when, owing to the absolute ne- 
cessity of members attending to their private arrange- 
ments, and to agencies committed to them by their con- 
stituents, it was difficult to procure the attendance of a 
quorum, and it continually occurred that, when questions 
were taken, it was found necessary to move a call of the 
House, in order to muster the requisite number of members. 

By examining the votes given on a large portion of 
the questions, it will be found that they were decided by 
a bare majority of the whole number of the representa- 
tives of the people, and consequently the constituency of 
the United States was not properly represented on these 
occasions. Indeed it has long been notorious that there 
is great laxity on the part of members in their attendance 
on Congressional debates, and it is only on great party 
questions that they can be rallied. Hence, in most ca- 
ses of a private nature — which it will be seen by our 
statement constitute nearly three-fourths of the whole — 
the money of the people is disposed of without the con- 
sent or knowledge of their immediate representatives. 
Thus the great principle of representation is practically 
frittered away to nothing, and the people are virtually 
deprived of their voice and influence in the disposal of 
their own money, and in the assertion of their own rights. 



WILLIAM LEGGBTT. 231 

The greater part of every session of Congress is 
wasted in unprofitable debate. A few great party ques- 
tions occupy nearly the whole time ; and when, at the 
close of the term, it becomes indispensably necessary to 
act, the hours, days, and weeks consumed in talking 
without acting are redeemed by action without debate 
or consideration. They fly from one extreme to the 
other. The favourite maxim of the Albany Argus, in 
medio tutissimus ibis, is no part of the wisdom of Con- 
gress. Laws, involving important principles and vast 
expenditures, are hurried along on a torrent of impetu- 
ous legislation, with a precipitancy that defies reflection 
or analysis, and finally passed, perhaps in the dead of 
night, by a Rump Congress, consisting of a bare quorum 
of members, worn out with fatigue, and some of them 
probably half asleep. 

The last days of a session are not the proper period for 
important acts of legislation, not only for the reasons 
already stated, but for others of equal weight and im- 
portance. The passions, engendered by months of argu- 
ment, rivalry and contention, always break forth at that 
period, and produce a state of mind utterly incompati- 
ble with calm, temperate consideration. It is the last 
round of a long fight, and each party summons all its 
energies to give the decisive blow. In such a state of 
things it may well happen — as it often has happened — 
that measures of the greatest importance are debated and 
decided in a spirit wholly at war with the interests and 
honour of the nation. Scenes are exhibited calculated 
to impair that respect which is indispensable to the ex- 
ercise of authority in a free government. Law-givers 
become objects of contempt or derision, and the people 
at last lose that confidence in the representative system, 
without which there is no security for the permanency of 



232 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

our Government. That confidence once wholly lost, and 
they will be ready to throw themselves into the arms of 
despotism as a refuge from doubt and despair. 

Either the present number of representatives in Con- 
gress is necessary, or it is not. If the former, then a 
regular and general attendance is demanded of the mem- 
bers. If the latter, then it is an abuse to saddle the peo- 
ple with the expense of these supernumerary legislators, 
who spend their time in gallanting the ladies about the 
city of Washington, or flirting with them in the galleries 
of the two Houses. If their wisdom is essential to the 
welfare of the people, then the people who pay them 
have a right to its exercise : if it is not, it might better 
be emyloyed on their own account at home. 

The close of every session of Congress, whether short 
or long, invariably exhibits a vast mass of public business 
either not acted upon, or left unfinished, consisting not 
unfrequently of questions of great and general importance 
to the whole Union. This lamentable result may be 
partly owing to the annual increase of private claims 
not susceptible of judicial decision, and therefore brought 
before Congress as the only resort. If so, it would seem 
to be high time to make such a disposition of these mat- 
ters as may allow ample time to the proper aflfairs of the 
nation ; to those general laws which are of universal 
concern, and the neglect of which is felt in every part of 
the country. 

The cause of this neglect of more important affairs, in 
the first instance, and this precipitate legislation on them 
afterwards, will be discovered in the unlimited indulgence 
of the rage for speech making — the cacoethes loquendi, 
which is the prevailing epidemic in Congress — added to 
that propensity to private, partial, and local legislation, 
which is becoming the curse of this country. Almost 
every member has his budget of matters of this sort, in 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 233 

■which the great mass of the nation has no concern what- 
ever, and which he cannot die in peace without thrusting 
upon the attention of Congress, and urging with a per- 
tinacity and verbosity precisely in proportion to their 
insignificance. In this way the people are borne down 
to the earth with public benefits and harrassed with 
legislation, and there is some reason to fear that it will 
be discovered ere long that they cannot breathe without 
a special act of Congress. 

" Do NOT GOVERN TOO MUCH," is a maxim which should 
be placed in large letters over the speaker's chair in all 
legislative bodies. The old proverb, « too much of a 
good thing is good for nothing," is most especially appli 
cable to the present time, when it would appear, from 
the course of our legislation, that common sense, com- 
mon experience, and the instinct of self-preservation, are 
utterly insufficient for the ordinary purposes of life ; that 
the people of the United States are not only incapable of 
self-government, but of taking cognizance of their indi- 
vidual affairs ; that industry requires protection, enter- 
prize bounties, and that no man can possibly find his 
way in broad day light without being tied to the apron- 
string of a legislative dry-nurse. The present system of 
our legislation seems founded on the total incapacity of 
mankind to take care of themselves or to exist without 
legislative enactment. Individual property must be 
maintained by invasions of personal rights, and the 
"general welfare" secured by monopolies and exclusive 
privileges. 

The people of the United States will discover when 
too late that they may be enslaved by laws as well as by 
the arbitrary will of a despot ; that unnecessary re- 
straints are the essence of tyranny ; and that there is no 
more effectual instrument of depriving them of their 
liberties, than a legislative body, which is permitted to 
20* 



234 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

do anything it pleases under the broad mantle of the 
PUBLIC GOOD — a mantle which, like charity, covers a 
multitude of sins, and like charity is too often practised 
at the expense of other people. 



WHO PAYS FOR UNCURRENT BILLS 1 

[From the Evening Post, March 11, 1835.] 
A RETAIL grocer receives from his customers in the 
course of a week say a hundred dollars in uncurrent bills. 
He cannot take up his promissory note in the bank with- 
out getting these uncurrent bills exchanged. He takes 
them to a broker, and receives ninety. eight dollars in 
bankable money for them. If this operation is repeated 
every week, it amounts to say fifty dollars in the course 
of a year. Out of whose pocket is this paper-money tax 
paid ? Does the grocer incur the loss ? Certainly not ; 
he pays it in the first instance, but who indemnifies him ? 
It forms one of the items of his annual expenses, which 
he is obliged to calculate in putting a profit on his goods. 
Those who deal with him pay the tax, and who are they ? 
The carpenter, the bricklayer, and the labourer, when 
they buy a pound of tea, or cheese, or butter, or any 
other article in his line, to take home to their families. 
If the currency of the city were specie, or even paper 
convertible into specie without a discount, the prices of 
all commodities would undergo a sensible reduction. 
Every article of consumption is now charged from two to 
three per cent, higher than it ought to be, in consequence 
of the depreciated currency in circulation. This tax 
falls almost exclusively on the mechanics and labourers. 
The profit goes into the pockets of the bankers and 
brokers. Why should the mechanics and labourers be 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 235 

burdened to support banks ? Are they in the habit of 
getting discounts ? Do they Uve by bank-favours 7 No, 
quite the reverse. The men who live on bank credits 
are not labourers. " They toil not, neither do they 
spin ; " or if they work at all, it is head-work, the end 
and aim of which is to supply themselves with luxuries 
at other people's expense. Is it not a little hard that 
they who receive none of the benefits dispensed by 
banks, should be saddled with all the burdens? If they 
will suffer the scrip nobility to mount them, however, and 
spur them, like horses, or we might more properly say 
like asses, it is their own fault, since they have it in their 
power to throw them off whenever they please. But if 
they would rather have depreciated paper than real 
money, though we may wonder at their choice, we shall 
not quarrel with it. De gustibus non est disputandum. 
Perhaps they prefer, as a matter of taste, a small loaf to 
a large one. It may be a thing of no consequence to 
them whether they have to pay ten pence or only eight 
pence a pound for beef; and to be caught now and then 
with a few dollars of broken bank notes in their pockets 
may be considered a capital joke. We should think their 
relish of this joke would be keener, however, if they had 
not purchased those notes by several days of hard toil. 



THE BANK OF THE UNITED STATES. 

[From the Evening Post, March 12, 1835.] 
Most seriously and earnestly do we ask the attention 
of the public to the subjoined abstract of the Report of 
the United States Bank for the first of the present month. 
In our view of the subject, beyond all shadow of doubt, 
that huge moneyed institution is acting on a deliberate and 
settled design to make one last and desperate effort to 



236 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

perpetuate its existence by again shaking the foimdations 
of credit, and spreading a financial panic through the 
land. They are fatally mistaken who imagine that the 
Monster has received its death-blow ; it but recoiled for 
a moment paralysed from the stroke, and is now spread- 
ing itself out for a more desperate stru^rgle. 

Examine, we beseech you, readers, the present condi- 
tion of that hateful money power, as exhibited in the 
statement we subjoin. In the last four months the Bank 
has extended its loans more than twelve millions op 
DOLLARS ! What a warning this single fact speaks ! 
That institution, which, eight months ago, enormously cur- 
tailed its business to the ruin of thousands of prosperous 
citizens, and the dismay of the whole land, on the pretext 
that it was compelled to prepare for the final dissolution 
of its charter, now, when there are no extrrordinary occa- 
sions for money, swells itself out, of its own voluntary act, 
to a greater degree of distension than it ever did before. 
The Branch Bank in this city never at any period of its 
existence had as much money loaned out as at this mo- 
ment. Its loans now exceed those of the mother bank in 
Philadelphia, which was never the case before. Every 
indication shows, not only that a pecuniary pressure and 
panic is in preparation, but that this city is to be the chief 
scene and centre of operations. Another desperate* ef- 
fort will be made to break down our local institutions, and 
spread dismay and financial devastation through the state. 
And yet the local banks are extending themselves as confi- 
dentially if this slumbering volcano were not ready to ex- 
plode beneath them, and scatter their foundations to the 
winds. 

It requires no extraordinary perspicacity to perceive 
that another panic, and more dreadful than the first, is 
in preparation. The approach of the next session of 
Congress is the season chosen for carrying this design in- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 237 

to execution. The forcing a recharter is the main ob- 
ject in view, and the secondary to defeat the democracy 
in the election of President. We beg men capable of 
reflection to ponder on this subject. We beg those having 
influence to use their efforts to avert the evil. The local 
banks, unwittingly, are lending themselves to the designs 
of the great money power. They are discounting with 
a freedom almost unparalleled. There never was before 
such a constant and copious flood of small country bank 
notes pouring into this city as at the present moment. 
Shall nothing be done to avert this evil — to check and 
roll back this tide of ruin? 

Earnestly did we hope that the Legislature would do 
what a regard to the public wishes, and a regard to the 
public interests without respect to their wishes, impera- 
tively required in relation to the small note currency. 
If all notes under five dollars had been prohibited at once 
(and the currency was never better able to sustain such a 
measure) the calamitous state of things which we foresee 
might at least be obviated in a degree. One important 
part of the materials of panic would have been deficient. 
These were the views which governed us in the Letter 
which we addressed to Governor Marcy through our 
paper of the 24th of December last. For those views we 
have been bitterly reviled. They who reproached us for 
them we live to see how true were our predictions. 

Come what may, -it is a satisfaction to us to know 
that it at least cannot be said that our warning voice 
was not timely raised. If the statement which we sub- 
join do not rouse the people, they would slumber in apa- 
thetic indiflference to the future, though one should rise 
from the dead to put them on their guard. Have the 
fearful lessons of experience taught them by the events of 
last winter been already forgotten ? Here is something 
then to freshen their recollections ; 



238 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



ABSTRACT OF THE 

REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES BANK 
For the first of March,' 1835. 

Loans on Personal Security $31,152,368.22 

do. on Bank Stock 862,566.12 

Other Security 3,935,370.13 

$35,956,304.47 
Domestic Bills of Exchange 21,864,1 00.18 

$57,814,404.65 

In London and Paris $2,754,244.65 

Specie 16,567,893.36 

Redemption of Public Debt 699,999.89 

Treasury United States 690,704.37 

Public Offices 1,192,723.02 

Individual Depositors 8,903,807.35 

Circulation 19,519,777.90 

Due from other Banks 2,261,477.10 

Due to. .do 5,011.634.24 

Notes of States Banks 2,173,925.41 

Loans at New York Branch. 

On Personal Security $5,505, 365.05 

On Bank Stock . . . , 134,950.00 

On other Security 483,574.07 

Domestic Exchange 2,328,906.83 

$8,452,797.95 

At Boston 2,774,318.75 

At Philadelphia 8,067,899.79 

At Baltimore 1,634,155.80 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 239 



THE AUCTION MONOPOLY. 

[From the Evening Post, March, 13, 1835.] 
The American of last evening does us the honor to ad- 
dress its leading article particularly to this journal ; and 
we lay aside other matters of pressing importance to ex- 
tend to it the courtesy of an immediate reply. With re- 
gard to thq law restraining the right to sell by auction, 
we have no hesitation to state, in the most explicit lan- 
guage, that we consider it unwise, unjust, at variance 
with the fundamental principles of our government, and 
constituting a monopoly, not merely in the popular, but 
in the strict legal sense of that term. Our " incessant 
assault upon monopolies," the American may have no- 
ticed, has been aimed rather against general principles 
than particular institutions. When we have adverted to 
particular institutions, it has been more with the view to 
illustrate the operation of general principles, than to give 
a particular direction to public sentiment. The restrain- 
ing law in regard to auctions we consider quite as un- 
sound as the restraining law in regard to banking ; 
though the effect of restrictions on banking are more 
deeply and extensively pernicious than those on auc- 
tions. We earnestly desire the repeal of both, but with 
this difference : the first we would repeal immediately, 
while the latter we would desire to see maintained, until 
certain preliminary measures should have guarded the 
public against those evils which would result from throw- 
ing banking open to the whole community in the present 
state of our currency. 

This answer we trust the American will find sufficient- 
ly explicit, so far as the auction law is concerned. But 
we will go a step further, and advert to the tax which 
the state imposes on auction sales. We look upon this 



240 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

tax as unequal, unjust, and oppressive, and are not with- 
out strong doubts that it is a positive, as it most assured- 
ly is a virtual, violation of the Constitution of the United 
States. If we have not commented on this subject before, 
it has not been because we had not reflected maturely on 
it, and deliberately formed those opinions which we now 
express ; but because we were unwilling to waive the 
discussion of general principles, for the sake of directing 
our energies against a single and not the most important 
branch of the subject of monopolies. We consider it a 
nobler and more useful object to strive to do away those 
false notions on which the whole system of restrictions 
and exclusive privileges rest, than to attack particular 
abuses in detail. We have striven to lay the axe to the 
root of the tree, not to cut off its branches one by one. 
If the trunk perishes, the boughs must needs wither. 

With regard to the complaints which the American 
prefers in behalf of those individual auctioneers whose 
commissions have not been renewed, we are likewise free 
to state that if, as that journal avers, they have been re- 
fused a renewal of their commissions for no other reason 
than " because they are not for Martin Van Buren as 
President of the United States," Governor Marcy has act- 
ed towards them in a most prescriptive, narrow, and 
contemptible spirit, and his conduct deserves the scorn 
of all honourable men. But as we have abundant rea- 
son to believe that Governor Marcy is controlled by no 
such spirit, we must be excused from yielding entire cre- 
dit to the assertion of the American, while it remains 
wholly unsupported by proof, particularly as it is wholly 
at war with some facts which are within our own posi- 
tive knowledge. But it is not only on the score of those 
to whom commissions have been denied that the Ameri- 
can finds grounds of complaint ; those on whom they 
have been conferred afford equal ground of censure. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 241 

Again we say, if the statement made by that journal is 
correct, and these new auctioneers are indeed " wretched 
political retainers and hacks — 'men without credit, and 
unworthy of it," Governor Marcy, by appointing them, 
has entitled himself to severer reprehension than the 
American expresses. Bat we must join issue on the fact. 
It is again within our knowledge that the American is 
incorrect. With some of the auctioneers newly appoint- 
ed we have a personal acquaintance, and others we know 
well through the representations of men in whom we 
have the fullest confidence ; and we must take leave to 
say, that the American is misinformed as to their charac- 
ters, and does those men cruel injustice. We assert with 
the utmost positiveness that in every moral and intellec- 
tual quality they are, to say the least, quite equal to those 
whose places they have been appointed to fill ; that they 
are as honest, respectable and capable, and we do not 
doubt will discharge the duties of auctioneers quite as 
much to the satisfaction of the public and the advantage 
of the state. 

The American, however, in bewailing the fate of the 
superceded auctioneers, and pouring its scorn on the 
heads of their successors, quite loses sight of the admir- 
able anti-monopoly principles with which it commenced 
its article. That journal should recollect that it censur- 
ed the auction law as " a universal abridgement of a na- 
tural right " — " a monopoly injurious and unjust ; " and 
spoke of those appointed under it as " a privileged class 
created at once.'' To limit their tenure then, and sub- 
ject them to the operation of that principle of equal 
rights which requires rotation in office, is certainly di- 
minishing the odiousness of the monopoly. And if we 
must have privileged classes, we ought to thank Gover- 
nor Marcy for not recognizing their pretensions to be 
privileged for life ; but by requiring them to return, after 
Vol. I 21 



242 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

a certain term, to the level of the mass of the people, 
reduce the evil of aristocratic distinctions as near to the 
simplicity of the republican system as possible. We 
agree with the American that the auction law creates an 
odious monopoly ; and the American will surely agree 
with us that to give "a favoured few" a perpetuity of 
the " privileged and valuable offices " created by that law 
would be to render the monopoly more exclusive and 
unquestionable, and add a still darker hue to its char- 
acter. 

There is another point of view in which the American 
must permit us to express our satisfaction at the course 
pursued by Governor Marcy ; since we esteem ourselves 
indebted to it for the valuable assistance of that journal 
against monopolies. If the sympathies of the American 
had not been excited by the non-renewal of the " valuable 
offices " of certain of its friends of the privileged class, 
and its disgust provoked by those offices being filled with 
men of a different political stamp, it is impossible to say 
how long a time might have elapsed before that paper 
would have discovered that the auction law is a monopo- 
ly and the auctioneers a privileged order. 

We might adduce other arguments in support of the 
course Governor Marcy has pursued ; but unwilling to 
give our space to supererogative disquisitions, we shall 
take the liberty of referring the American to its own for- 
cible approval of the course of the present Whig Com- 
mon Council, in dismissing the democrats whom, on 
their being elected, they found incumbents of the various 
minor municipal offices. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 243 



FREE TRADE POST OFFICE. 

[From the Evening Post, M&rch 23, 1835.] 
The party newspapers, both for and against the admi- 
nistration, contain, every now and then, statements ex- 
posing individual instances of gross abuse of the franking 
privilege. There can be no doubt that the franking pri- 
vilege is a prolific source of many of those evils in the 
Post-office department which are complained of on all 
hands, and that a reformation of the laws on this subject 
is very mnch needed. 

It is but a few days since we had occasion to mention 
a circumstance calculated to show in a strong light the 
grievous burdens which are imposed on the mails by 
those having the power to send their communications free 
of postage. This was the transmission, from Washing- 
ton to Connecticut, by a single individual, and in the 
course of three days, of franked packages, weighing in 
all nearly two hundred pounds ! These packages were 
said to be made up of the majority report of the Post-of- 
fice committee of the United States Senate, exposing the 
alleged corruptions of the Post-office Department, and 
were doubtless sent into Connecticut at this particular 
time, and in such extraordinary numbers, for the purpose 
of being used for political efiect, to influence the result 
of the approaching election in that state. 

Though this particular instance exhibits, perhaps, a 
somewhat unusual excess in the use of the franking privi- 
lege, it is a fact perfectly notorious that similar imposi- 
tions on the public mails are daily practised, and proba- 
bly as much by the members of one party as of the other. 
Post masters, as well as members of Congress, exercise a 
most unjustifiable latitude of construction in the use of 
their franking privilege. Not only communications on 



244 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the business of their office, and in relation to their own 
private affairs, are sent free from one extremity of the 
country to another, but in very many cases they seem to 
act as the general agents of their neighbourhood, and 
employ their franking privilege, as charity does its 
mantle, to cover a multitude of sins. Many particular 
agencies seem to be done almost entirely through the 
country post-masters at the expense of the Government. 
Nothing is more common, for example, than their gratui- 
tous agency between the subscribers of a newspaper and 
its publishers. We believe we speak within bounds when 
we assert that full one -half of the country subscribers to 
the Evening Post are received through the franked let- 
ters of village post-masters. They forward to us both 
the names of subscribers and the payment for the paper. 
These facts abundantly show that a reform of the frank- 
ing system is absolutely needed. 

But at the hazard of giving a new occasion for the 
charge of ultraism against this journal, we shall take the 
liberty to express an opinion, which we have long enter- 
tained, that the source of the evils in our Post-office sys- 
tem lies far too deep to be reached by any regulation or 
abridgement of the franking privilege, or even by its 
total abolition. It lies too deep, in our opinion, also, to 
be reached by any possible organization of the Post-of- 
fice Department which it is in the power of the General 
Government to establish. There are five words in the 
Constitution of the United States which we look upon as 
the grand primary source of all the evils of which the 
people have so much just cause to complain in relation 
to that particular department of the Government. We 
allude to the clause which gives to Congress the power 
" to establish post-offices and post-roads." 

These words, in our view of the subject, ought never 
to have formed a part of the Constitution. They confer 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 245 

a power on the General Government which is liable, and 
almost inevitably subject, to the grossest political abuse. 
The abuse is one which will necessarily increase, too, 
from year to year, as population increases in numbers 
and spreads over a wider surface. The Post-office, con- 
troled and directed by the General Government, will 
always be conducted with a vast deal of unnecessary ex- 
pense, and, what is a consideration of far more serious 
importance, will always be used, to a greater or less ex- 
tent, as a political machine. 

It is not probable that the history of this Union, should 
it stretch out far ages, will ever exhibit to the admiration 
of mankind an administration under the guidance of a 
more faithful, energetic, intrepid and patriotic spirit, 
than that which happily now rules the executive councils 
of the nation. Yet even under the administration of a 
man whose integrity no arts can corrupt, whose firmness 
no difficulties can appal, and whose vigilance no toils can 
exhaust — even under the administration of such a man, 
what a sickening scene does the mismanagement of the 
Post-office not present ! Remove Mr. Barry and ap- 
point another in his place, and you will not correct, and 
most likely you will not even mitigate the evil. Abolish 
the franking privilege, and the essential defects of the 
system would still remain. Re-organize the whole de- 
partment, and introduce all the guards and checks which 
legislative ingenuity can devise, and still you will not 
wholly remove the imperfection. The Post-office will 
still be a government machine, cumbrous, unwieldy, and 
liable to the worst sorts of abuses. 

The Post-office is established by the Government for 
the purpose of faci,litating intercourse by letter between 
distant places. But personal intercourse between distant 
places is as necessary as epistolary, though not, perhaps, 
to the same degree. Why then should not the Govern- 
21* 



246 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

ment take upon itself the support and regulation of facili- 
ties for carrying passengers as well as letters from place 
to place ? The transmission of packages of merchan- 
dise from one part of the country to another is no less 
necessary, than intercourse by letter or person. Why 
should not Government go a step further, and institute 
transportation lines for the conveyance of our goods ? 
But we shall be answered, that these objects may safely 
be left to the laws of trade, and that supply will keep pace 
with demand in these matters as in other commercial and 
social wants of man. Might not the laws of trade, and 
the power of demand to produce supply through the ac- 
tivity of private enterprise, be safely trusted to, also, for 
the carriage of letters from place to place ? 

If the mail establishment, as a branch of the United 
States Government, should be abolished this hour, how 
long would it be before private enterprise would institute 
means to carry our letters and newspapers from city to 
city, with as much regularity as they are now carried, 
and far greater speed and economy ? But the objection 
may be raised that inland places and thinly settled por- 
tions of the country would suffer by such an arrange- 
ment. There is no place on the map of the United 
States which would not soon be supplied with mail faci- 
lities by paying what they were worth, and if it gets 
them for less now, it is only because the deficiency is le- 
vied from the inhabitants of some other place, which is 
contrary to the plainest principles of justice. 

There are very many considerations which might be 
urged in favour of a free trade view of this subject. The 
curse of office hunting, which is an incident of our form 
of Government, and is exerting every year, more and 
more, a demoralizing influence on the people, would un- 
dergo a check and rebatement by the suggested change. 
But would you withdraw — some one may ask — the sti- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 247 

mulus which the present post-office system furnishes to 
emigration, by extending mail routes through the wilder- 
ness, and thus presenting inducements for population to 
gather together at points which would otherwise remain 
unimproved and uninhabited for years ? To this we 
answer, unequivocally, yes. We would withdraw all 
Government stimulants ; and let no man suppose that the 
progress of improvement would be retarded by such a 
withdrasval. The country would grow from year to 
year, notwithstanding, as rapidly and more healthily than 
now. It would only be changing the hot-bed system to 
the system of nature and reason. It would be disconti- 
nuing the force-pump method, by which we now seek to 
make water flow up hill, and leaving it to flow in its own 
natural channels. It would be removing the high. pres- 
sure application of Government facilities from enterprise 
and capital, and permitting them to expand themselves 
in their own proper field. The boundaries of population 
would still continually enlarge, circle beyond circle, like 
spreading rings upon the water ; but they would not be 
forced to enlarge this way and that way, shootino- out 
into strange and unnatural irregularities, as it mio-ht 
please land speculators, through the agency of members 
of Congress, to extend mail facilities into regions which 
perhaps God and nature meant should remain uninhabit- 
ed for ages to come. 

There are various other points of view in which the 
subject deserves to be considered. But we must reserve 
these for another occasion. 



248 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



STOCK GAMBLING. 

[From the Evening Post, March 25, 1835.] 
In the bill now before the legislature of this state to 
regulate the sales of stocks and exchange, we behold an- 
other beautiful illustration of the benefits which the com- 
munity derive from our wretched system of special and 
partial legislation. The professed object of this bill is to 
prevent stock-gambling ; and stock-gambling, according 
to our humble opinion, is a species of speculation which 
our law-givers, by the whole course of their legislation 
for years past, have done all in their power to foster and 
promote. If they desire now, really and sincerely, to do 
away with the evils of this desperate and immoral kind 
of enterprise, which daily displays itself to a frightful 
extent in Wall-street, let them adopt a more effectual 
method than that proposed by the bill under their consi- 
deration. Let them address their efforts to correct the 
cause of the evil, and the effect will be sure to be remov- 
ed. Let them apply the axe to the root of the tree, and 
the branches will needs wither, when the source from 
which they derive their nourishment is destroyed. 

The whole course of our legislation, in regard to finan- 
cial matters, has had a direct tendency to excite a fever- 
ish and baneful thirst of gain — gain not by the regular 
and legitimate operations of trade, but by sudden and 
hazardous means. Every body has been converted into 
a stock speculator by our laws. Every body is seeking 
to obtain a charter of incorporation for some purpose or 
other, in order that he may take his place among the 
bulls and bears of the stock-market, and play his hand in 
the desperate game of Wall-street brag. What is the 
true nature of the spectacle which is presented to the 
contemplation of sober-minded men, every time any new 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 249 

company of scrip gamblers is created ? Do we not see 
persons not worth a hundred dollars in the world, running 
with all speed to put in their claims for a division of the 
stock — persons who are not able to raise even the instal- 
ment on the amount of stock which they ask, and who, 
in point of fact, are the mere agents of brokers and other 
speculators, selling the use of their names for a certain 
rate of premium per share on the division of stock which 
may be awarded to them ? 

A gaming spirit has infected the whole community. 
This spirit is the offspring — the deformed and bloated 
offspring — of our wretched undemocratic system of ex- 
clusive and partial legislation. To destroy the effect, 
and leave the cause untouched, would be as easy a task 
for our legislature, as to restrain an impetuous torrent 
while you yet leave wide the flood-gates which presented 
the only barrier to its course. The legislature might pass 
a law commanding the stream to keep within certain 
limits ; but we doubt if its waves would recede, notwith- 
standing the terrors of the law — 

" They rolled not back when Canute gave command." 

It is time the legislature made the discovery that there 
are some things which cannot be done by law. They 
cannot prevent the thunder from following the light- 
ning's flash, however carefully they may word their sta- 
tute, or whatever penalty they may affix to its violation. 
They cannot change the whole nature of man by any 
enactment. We doubt very much whether even the 
famous Blue Laws wholly deterred men from kissing their 
wives on occasions, particularly in the first part of their 
matrimonial connexion ; nor do we believe they prevent- 
ed beer from working on Sundays during the season of 
fermentation. As easy would it be, however, to effect 
such objects by law, as to repress the yearnings of cupi- 



250 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

dity and avarice, or stay the adventurous spirit of wild 
speculation which has been excited, by the penalties of a 
bill to regulate the sales of stock and exchange. The 
whole scope and tendency of all the rest of our legisla- 
tion is to inflame the feverish thirst of gain, which afflicts 
the community ; and how vain, how worse than vain, 
while our law-makers hold up the lure in every possible 
form of attraction before the pubUc, to bid them, shut 
their eyes, and not attempt to grasp it ! 

As to the particular project before the legislature, if 
we understand its provisions, it is not only inadequate to 
the end proposed, but unjust in its bearing, and impolitic 
on various grounds. It proposes to destroy the use of 
credit in the transactions of the stock-exchange, which 
is much such a cure for the evil it aims to abolish as am- 
putation of the leg would be for a gouty toe. The gout 
might attack the other foot, or the stomach, notwith- 
standing ; nor would its victim be more able to resist its 
influences with a frame weakened by the barbarous and 
uncalled for mutilation he had suffered. There is no 
earthly reason why credit should not be used in the pur- 
chase and sale of stocks, as well as in any other species 
of traffic. There is no kind of business intercourse 
which may not be made the means of gambling, and 
were it even within the competency of the legislature to 
check the public propensity to traffic on speculative con- 
tingencies, so far as one particular species of business 
is concerned, the ever active disposition would imme- 
diately indulge itself in some other form of hazardous and 
unrea' enterprise. For the real bona fide transactions in 
stock and exchange, the employment of credit is as in- 
trinsically proper, as the employment of credit in foreign 
commerce, in the purchase of real estate, or in any of 
the various modes and objects of human dealing. The 
legislature might as well pass a law forbidding the citi- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT, 251 

zen to deal or credit with his tailor, hatter, or shoemaker, 
to run up a score with his milkmen or baker, or postpone 
the payment for his newspaper, as to fordid a man to 
employ his legitimate credit in the purchase and sale of 
stocks. 

The mere business of dealing in stocks is as respecta- 
ble and useful as most others : the crime of gambling in 
stocks is the inevitable result of the wild and speculative 
spirit which springs from unsalutary legislation. When 
we look into the statute books, and see that more than 
two-thirds of all the laws passed in our state are for the 
creation of specially incorporated joint-stock companies ; 
when we learn that two-thirds of these joint-stock com- 
panies were created originally, not with strict reference 
to their professed ultimate object, but for purposes of in- 
termediary speculation : we must perceive that the evil to 
be remedied is in the legislature, not in the community ; 
that the fountain is turbid at its head, and that it will be 
vain and foolish to attempt to purify it by straining the 
waters of a distant branch through a clumsy, filtering 
contrivance of the laws. 

There is another view of this subject which it is impor- 
tant to take. By abolishing the use of credit in stock 
operations, you would not abolish stock-gambling, but 
only confine it to the more wealthy operators, and put 
additional facilities of fortune into the hands already fa- 
voured overmuch. You make a concession to the spirit 
of aristocracy. You lay another tribute at the feet of 
riches. You join your voice in its exaltation. You ex- 
clude from the magic circle the poor man whose capital 
consisted in his skill, industry, and character for sagacity 
and integrity, and you give it to the millionary to lord it 
there alone, as if his gold were better than the poor man's 
blood. 

That we are opposed to stock-gambling and gambling, 



252 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

in all its forms, we need not say. But we are equally op- 
posed to those false notions of Government which so ex- 
tensively prevail in this country, and which seem to con- 
sider that every thing is to be done by law, and nothing 
bv common sense and the inevitable operation of the laws 
of trade. For gambling, public opinion is the great and 
only salutary con:ective. If it cannot be suppressed by 
the force of the moral sense of the community, it cannot 
be suppressed by statutes and edicts, no matter how com- 
prehensive their terms, or how heavy their penalties. 
We have our laws against gambling now, yet establish- 
ments fitly denominated hells are notoriously conducted 
in different parts of the city, and there are various neigh- 
bourhoods where the dice-box and the roulette wheel rat- 
tle and clatter all night long. We have our laws against 
lotteries, too, yet what do they avail 1 The history of a 
recent instance of a man convicted of trafficking in the 
forbidden pursuit must convince any mind that those 
laws are a little more than a dead letter. And such 
would be the law to suppress stock operations on time. 
It would not do away with either the proper or improper 
part of the business ; but it would diminish the respecta- 
bility of the honest and prudent dealer, and give a more 
desperate character to the reckless adventurer. 



REGISTRATION OF VOTERS. 

{From the Evening Post, April 3, 1835.] 
The Veto of the Mayor of this city on the proceedings 
of the Common Council, relative to the proposed law 
for the registering of voters, was confined, we under- 
stand, to the constitutional objection, and did not object 
to the measure on the ground that it was not competent 
for the municipal legislature to take any steps to procure 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 253 

a statute at all changing or modifying the basis of the 
right of suffrage, as fixed by the State Convention. We 
presume Mr. Lawrence restricted himself to the consti- 
tutional argument, and pretermitted the other ground of 
objection, because the first afforded abundant justification 
of the course he pursued in declining his signature. Had 
the constitution, however, presented no impediment to 
the passing of such a law as the Common Council pro- 
posed, it might still be a matter of grave consideration 
how far our city authorities could, consistently with their 
legitimate functions under the City Charter, take part 
in procuring an important restriction on the right of suf- 
frage. As the Mayor, however, has not touched on this 
topic in his late message returning to the Common Coun- 
cil their resolution and other proceedings in relation to 
the registry law, we shall confine our attention, in the 
following paragraphs, to a consideration of the constitu- 
tional question, whether the legislature has or has not the 
power to pass such a law. 

In the Constitution of this state, as adopted by the 
Convention in 1S21, the first section of the second article 
established numerous qualifications for voters. The ri^ht 
of suffrage, by that section, was extended to every male 
citizen of the age of twenty-one, who should have been 
an inhabitant of the state for twelve months, and of the 
town or county where he offered his vote six months next 
preceding the election ; provided, he had paid a tax, or 
was by law exempted from taxation, or had performed mi- 
litary duty in the state, or was by law exempted from 
military duty, or had laboured on the highway, or paid 
an equivalent for such labour, &;c. (fee After stating 
these various qualifications, two other brief sections were 
added, one empowering the legislature to pass laws ex- 
cluding from the right of suffrage persons convicted of infa- 
mous crimes ; and the other to pass laws " for ascertaining 
Vol. I. — 22 



254 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

by proper proofs, the citizens who shall be entitled to the 
* right of suffrage hereby established.^^ 

It is under this last clause that the power is claimed 
for the legislature to pass a law requiring t\ie inhabitants 
of this city to register their namesy before they can be 
entitled to vote in an election. Yet that the power con- 
ferred by the clause is not so extensive, must be perfect- 
ly apparent to all who will take the pains to examine the 
proceedings of the Convention which framed the Consti- 
tution. It was intended to apply, probably, only to the 
qualifications as established by the first section of the 
second article, which, as they were numerous and some- 
what complex, might require the enactment of a law to 
provide one uniform mode of proof. If this was so, that 
clause became a dead letter, when the qualifications were 
stricken out, as they were by an amendment of the Con- 
stitution in 1826. 

Be this as it may, the Journal of the Convention contains 
abundant proof that the section, empowering the legisla- 
ture to pass laws for ascertaining, by proper proof, the 
persons entitled to suffrage under the Constitution, never 
conferred the power of passing a law requiring a registry 
of voters. The section, as originally reported to the 
Convention, by " the Committee appointed to consider 
the right of suffrage, and the qualifications of persons to 
be elected," was in the following words : 

« Laws shall be made for ascertaining, by proper proofs, 
the citizens who shall be entitled to the right of suffrage, 
hereby established . The legislature may provide by law, 
that a register of all citizens entitled to the right of suf- 
frage, in every town and ward, shall be made at least 
twenty days before any election ; and may provide, that no 
person shall vote at any election, who shall not be registered 
as a citizen qualified to vote at such election," 

On the eighth of October, nearly a month afterwards, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 255 

and when the subject had probably received the mature 
consideration of every member of the Convention, a mo- 
tion was offered by Mr. Root, " to strike out the third 
section, relating to a registry of votes J'^ This motion un- 
derwent a long and animated discussion. It was finally 
modified, with the consent of the mover, by excepting the 
jfirst sentence, and extending the motion to strike out 
only to the residue of the sentence — namely, to that part 
which, in the above quotation, we have printed in italics. 
But in permitting the first sentence to stand, it was 
clearly the intention of the Convention that the power 
to require that the names of all voters should be register- 
ed should not be conferred on the legislature. The mo- 
tion, thus amended, passed by a vote of 60 to 48. If we 
adopt the generally received maxim, which was eloquently 
enforced by Mr. Madison on a memorable occasion, that 
" in a controverted case, the meaning of the parties to the 
instrument, if to be collected by reasonable evidence, should 
he considered a proper guide,^^ there can be no doubt or 
hesitation as to the propriety of the stand which the mayor 
has taken on this question of the registry of voters. But 
if we even turn our backs on the proceedings of the Con- 
vention, and insist on understanding the Constitution 
without the help of any lights not furnished by its own 
text, still, we think, an answerable argument might be 
maintained against the constitutionality of the power 
which the common council are desirous that the legisla- 
ture should exercise. We may embrace some other op- 
portunity to turn our attention to that branch of the dis.. 
cussion. 



256 • POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 



WEIGHMASTER GENERAL. 

[Fro7n the Evening Post, April 10, 1835.] 
The report of the proceedings of the Legislature on 
Wednesday, which is copied into our paper of to-day, 
shows to our readers that there was a decided majority 
in the Assembly in favour of the bill providing for the ap- 
pointment of a Weighmaster General for this city, with 
power to name his own deputies. This measure^ was 
passed by a strict party vote ; and for the sake of creat- 
ine another office to be supported out of the means of this 
overburdened community, those members of the legisla- 
ture who were elected by the democracy, and call them- 
selves democrats, have concurred in fastening another 
shackle on the limbs of trade. 

There is probably not one man in our legislature so to- 
tally destitute of all knowledge of that magnificeut sci- 
ence which is revolutionizing the world, as not to be 
aware that the bill now before that body to regulate the 
weighing of merchandise, is an indirect tax on the peo- 
ple, is a violation of the principle of equal rights, is an- 
other link in that chain which folly and cunning have 
combined to fasten on the body politic, and by which the 
pupular action is already so much restrained, that, not- 
withstanding we enjoy universal suffrage, our elections, 
for the most part, are rather a reflection of the wishes of 
the banks and of the office-holders, than of the free, un- 
biassed will of the people. The effect of the present bill, 
besides imposing an additional tax on the community, 
and placing harmful checks and limitations around trade, 
will be to institute a band of placemen in the city, who 
will doubtless endeavour to show themselves worthy of 
their hire by exerting their lungs in shouts and paeans 
in praise of those to whom they owe their situations. 



WILLIAM LECGETT. 257 

To a certain extent exertions of this kind guide the course 
of public sentiment, and increase its force. Independent, 
then, of the poUtico-economical objections to legislative 
interference of the sort now under consideration, a more 
momentous objection exists in the fact that such measures 
are directly calculated to place government on a basis 
other than that of the spontaneous sentiments of the peo- 
ple, and draw a cordon of placemen around it, more pow- 
erful than the lictors and praetorian cohorts which hedg- 
ed in the abuses and corruptions of the licentious rulers 
of Rome. 

Earnestly did we hope that our present legislature, in- 
stead of ri vetting new fetters on the people, would have 
broken and cast away a portion, at least, of those disgrace- 
ful bonds with which the craft and ignorance of their 
predecessors had loaded us. But the fact is not to be dis- 
guised that our legislature, though called democratic, and 
elected by democrats, are in reality anything but true 
friends to the equal rights of the people. They represent 
banks, insurance companies, railroads, manufacturing es- 
tablishments, high-salaried officers, inspectors of raw- 
hides, sole-leather, beef, pork, tobacco, flour, rum, wood, 
coal, and, in short, almost every necessary and comfort of 
life. To state this more briefly, they represent mono- 
polies and office-holders ; and no wonder, therefore, that 
the whole course of their legislation is at the expense and 
to the detriment of the people at large, as they on all 
hands seem to be considered lawful prey, 
22* 



258 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 



WEIGHMASTER GENERAL. 

[From the Evening Post, April 16, 1835.] 
It will be seen by the report of the proceedings of the 
legislature yesterday afternoon, that Governor Marcy 
has returned to the Senate the bill providing for the ap- 
pointment of a Weighmaster General for this city, to- 
gether with his objections ; that the bill was subsequent- 
ly reconsidered and rejected, one person only dissenting, 
and a new bill for the same purpose as the former, but 
framed so as to avoid the objections stated by the Gov- 
ernor, was thereupon introduced by Mr. Macdonald. 
We hope, against hope, that there will be good sense 
enough in the legislature to defeat this new attempt to im- 
pose additional fetters on the body politic. We perceive 
with pleasure that Mr. Young, who has been absent for 
some days past in consequence of a domestic affliction, 
has resumed his seat in the Senate. We trust he may be 
induced to exert his powerful mind in exposing the true 
nature and utter folly of the proposed law. 

The real motive of those who are pushing this measure 
is as well understood in this city as in Albany. It is per- 
fectly well known here that the object is to create an office 
for a young politician from this city, who, for several 
years past, has been an active partizan, and who, during 
the past winter, has strenuously represented that it is time 
he had his reward. We have not the slighest objection 
that the individual alluded to should be provided with an 
office ; for we believe he is quite as honest and capable 
as nine-tenths of the office seekers, and have no doubt that 
his exertions have been of service to the democratic cause. 
But we have objection that an office should be especially 
created for his benefit, one for which there is not the 
slightest pubUc need, which would operate as an indirect 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 259 

tax on the community, and would present another and 
strong impediment in the way of that total emancipation 
of trade from the restrictions and impositions which have 
been placed upon it by crafty and foolish legislation. 

The weighing of merchandise is a matter with which 
legislation has nothing to do : the laws of trade would 
arrange that business much more to the satisfaction of 
all parties concerned than the laws of the state can ever 
do. When the Government has supplied its citizens with 
a measure of value, of weight, of length, and of quantity, 
it has done all in the way of measuring which properly 
belongs to Government. All your inspectors, your gua- 
gers, and your weighers, after that, with their whole host 
of deputies and subalterns, are but adscititious contri- 
vances of political cunning, to provide means for reward- 
ing those who assisted in its elevation, or to establish a 
phalanx to guard it in the height it has attained. 

It was our hope that our present legislature— chosen 
under so distinct an expression of the public sentiment 
against all monopolies and all infringements of the princi- 
ple of Equal Rights — would exert themselves to do away 
the restrictions on trade and the thousand subtle contri- 
vances for indirectly extorting taxes from the people to 
support useless officers ; or at all events that they would 
not add to the number of those impositions. If we xro on 
for many years to come, strengthening, and extending 
the artificial and unequal system we have for years past 
been building up, we shall at length find, perhaps too 
late, that we have erected around us an enormous, unseem- 
ly, and overshadowing structure, from which the privi- 
leged orders will have the encircled community wholly at 
their control, and which we cannot hope to demolish 
without bringing the whole fabric down with ruin on 
our heads. 



260 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 



DIRECT TAXATION. 

[From the Evening Post of April 22, 1834.J 
No reflecting mind can consider the mode of raising 
revenue in this country for the support of the Govern- 
ment, in connexion with the great principle on which 
that Government is founded, without being struck with 
the anomaly it presents. The fundamental principle of 
our political institutions is that the great body of the peo- 
ple are honest and intelligent, and fully capable of self- 
government. Yet so little confidence is really felt in 
their virtue and intelligence, that we dare not put them 
to the test of asking them, openly and boldly, to contri- 
bute, each according to his means, to defray the necessary 
expenses of the Government ; but resort, instead, to 
every species of indirection and arbitrary restriction on 
trade. This is true, not only of the General Govern- 
ment, but of every State Government, and every muni- 
cipal corporation. The General Government raises its 
revenue by a tax on foreign commerce, giving rise to 
the necessity of a fleet of revenue vessels, and an army 
of revenue officers. The State Governments raise 
their funds by a tax on auction sales, bonuses on banks, 
tolls on highways, licenses, excise, dec. The municipal 
corporations descend a step in this prodigious scale of 
legislative swindling, and derive their resources from im- 
positions on grocers, from steamboat and stage-coach 
licenses, and from a tax on beef, wood, coal, and nearly 
every prime necessary of life. This whole complicated 
system is invented and persevered in for the purpose of 
deriving the expenses of Government from a people 
whose virtue and intelligence constitute the avowed basis 
of our institutions ! What an absurdity does not a mere 
statement of the fact present ? 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 261 

Has any citizen, rich or poor, the least idea of the 
amount which he annually pays for the support of the 
government ? The thing is impossible. No arithmeti- 
cian, not even Babbit with his calculating machine, could 
compute the sum. He pays a tax on every article of 
clothing he wears, on every morsel of food he eats, on 
the fuel that warms him in winter, on the light which 
cheers his home in the evening, on the implements of 
his industry, on the amusements which recreate his 
leisure. There is scarcely an article produced by hu- 
man labour or ingenuity which does not bear a tax for 
the support of one of the three governments under which 
every individual lives. 

We have heretofore expressed the hope, and most cor- 
dially do we repeat it, that the day will yet come when 
we shall see the open and honest system of direct taxa- 
tion resorted to. It is the only democratic system. It 
is the only method of taxation by which the people can 
know how much their government costs them. It is the 
only method which does not give the lie to the great 
principle on which we profess to have established all our 
political institutions. It is the only method, moreover, 
in consonance with the doctrines of that magnificent 
science, which, the twin-sister, as it were, of democracy, 
is destined to make this country the pride and wonder of 
the earth. 

There are many evils which almost necessarily flow 
from our complicated system of indirect taxation. 
In the first place, taxes fall on the people very unequally. 
In the second place, it gives rise to the creation of a host 
of useless officers, and there is no circumstance which 
exercises such a vitiating and demoralizing influence on 
politics, as the converting of elections into a strife of 
opposite parties for place instead of principles. Another 
bad effect of the system is that it strengthens the govern- 



262 POLITICAL WHITINGS OF 

ment at the expense of the rights of the people, induces 
it to extend its powers to objects which were not con- 
templated in its original institution, and renders it every 
year less and less subject to the popular will. The ten- 
dency of the system is to build up and foster monopolies 
of various kinds, and to impose all sorts of restrictions 
on those pursuits which should be left wholly to the con- 
trol of the laws of trade. We are well satisfied, and 
have long been so, that the only way to preserve econo- 
my in government, to limit it to its legitimate purposes, 
and to keep aroused the necessary degree of vigilancs on 
the part of the people, is by having that government 
dependent for its subsistence on a direct tax on property. 

If the fundamental principle of democracy is not a 
cheat and a mockery, a mere phrase of flattery, invented 
to gull the people — if it is really true that popular intelli- 
gence and virtue are the true source of all political power 
and the true basis of Government — if these positions are 
admitted, we can conceive no possible objection to a sys- 
tem of direct taxation which at all counterbalances any 
of the many important and grave considerations that may 
be urged in its favour. 

For our own part, we profess ourselves to be democrats 
in the fullest and largest sense of the word. We are for 
free trade and equal rights. We are for a strictly popu- 
lar Government. We have none of those fears, which 
some of our writers, copying the slang of the English 
aristocrats, profess to entertain of an " unbalanced de- 
mocracy." We believe when government in this coun- 
try shall be a true reflection of public sentiment ; when 
its duties shall be strictly confined to its only legitimate 
ends, the equal protection of the whole community in 
life, person, and property ; when all restrictions on trade 
shall be abolished, and when the funds necessary for the 
support of the government and the defence of the country 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 263 

are derived directly from taxation on property — we be- 
lieve when these objects are brought about, we shall then 
present to the admiration of the world a nation founded 
as the hills, free as the air, and prosperous as a fruitful 
soil, a genial climate, and industry, enterprise, temperance 
and intelligence can render us. 



STATE PRISON MONOPOLY. 

[From the Evening Post, April 28, 1835.] 
The legislature, it will be seen, have at last taken up, 
in good earnest, the state prison question. As this is a 
subject which both parties have tried their utmost to turn 
into a mere political gull-trap, it is not probable that any 
measure will be finally acted upon, before members have 
baited the trap with a deal of mawkish oratory, and, in 
so doing, expose, most thoroughly, their ignorance of the 
first principles of political economy. 

This journal has never said much in relation to the 
state prison monopoly, as it is called, because a degree of 
importance had been given to the subject entirely dispro- 
portioned to its real merits, and demagogues had made it 
the theme of their vehement harangues, until an excite- 
ment was produced among the mechanic classes so strong 
and general, that it swallowed up almost every other 
question, and pervaded almost every vocation. We are 
as decidedly opposed to the principle of state prison la- 
bour as any person can be ; yet we believe that the 
practical evil of the present system, on any branch of 
productive industry, is exceedingly trifling, and indeed 
almost below computation, while the result to society at 
large is decidedly beneficial. Nevertheless, as the funda- 
mental principle of the system is, in our view, totally 



264 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

erroneous, we have never hesitated to oppose it when we 
deemed that the occasion called on us to speak. 

One of these occasions was furnished by the publication 
of the report of the State Prison Commissioners, which was 
a weak, inaccurate, shuffling document, and was the more 
calculated to provoke indignation, as one of its authors 
is well known to have ridden himself into office on the 
hobby of the state prison monopoly question. It seemed 
to us a barefaced piece of treachery for this person, after 
having won the suffrages of the mechanics by the m- 
cessant and superior loudness of his vociferation against 
the employment of convict labour in competition with 
honest industry, to turn round and immediately present 
to the legislature such a deceptive hocus-pocus report as 
that to which his name was subscribed. 

The suggestions of the report made by the Commission- 
ers have been embodied in the bill now before the Assem- 
bly. By this plan the prisoners are to be employed in 
branches of industry not yet introduced among our citi- 
zens, and among these the culture and manufacture of 
silk occupy a conspicuous place. We are surprised that 
sensible men in the legislature should not perceive that 
in principle, it is the same thing whether the convicts 
are employed in callings in which free citizens are already 
encraged, or are turned to others to which free citizens 
would naturally direct their attention in the course of a 
short time. 

The question of the state prison monopoly, in our view, 
reduces itself to this : it is the exclusive employment, by 
Government, of a labour-saving machine, in competition 
with a certain portion of citizens who have no such ad- 
vantage. Has Government a right to set up a labour- 
saving machine, and to enter into competition with any 
class of its citizens in any pursuit of industry? Govern- 
ment, it will be admitted, is instituted for the equal pro- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 265 

tection of all, in person, life, and property. These are 
its only legitimate objects. The confinement of crimi- 
nals, so as to restrain them from perpetrating their outra- 
ges against society, is an object in which all are equally 
interested. The support of them in confinement is a 
contingent evil, and ought to be borne in the ratio of 
benefit conferred — that is, equally. But when the crimi- 
nals are made to earn their own support by manufactur- 
ing a class of articles which a certain portion of citizens 
also manufacture for their livelihood, it is obvious that a 
fundamental principle of government is violated, since 
equal protection is no longer extended to all. 

But the political economist may contend that the evil 
in this case is but temporary ; that the supply will soon 
adjust itself to the demand ; that a certain number of 
citizens, driven from their occupation by the introduc- 
tion of convict competition, will only be obliged to turn 
themselves to other branches of industry ; and that in a 
short time, the matter equalizing itself through all the 
callings of active life, a permanent benefit will accrue to 
society, in the aggregate, by reason of the increased pro- 
duction and diminished price of all the articles created 
by human labour. 

If we admit this statement to be true, is it not at best 
an argument in favour of the state prison system on the 
ground that all is well that ends well 1 or that it is right 
to do evil in the first instance, that good may follow 1 These 
are principles which ought never to be countenanced in 
our system of political ethics. The cardinal object of 
Government is the equal protection of all citizens. The 
moment the prisoner is set to work, and the products of 
his labour sold, some free citizen is unequally and oppress- 
ively burdened. If this citizen is induced to forsake his 
now overstocked calling, and engage in some other, the 
competition in this new branch will operate injuriously 
Vol. I.— 23 



266 POLITICAL WRITI]XGS OF 

to those already engaged in it ; and this will continue to 
be the case, though in a gradually diminishing ratio, 
through all the various pursuits of active industry, until 
the displaced particles of society, so to speak, diffuse them- 
selves evenly over the entire surface. 

The aggregate of products manufactured by convict 
labour in the United States bears so small a proportion 
to the sum of the products of free labour, that the practi- 
cal evil of state prison competition on any mechanic class 
is, as we have already stated, exceedingly and almost in- 
calculably light. The final result of all labour-saving 
machinery (and the operation of our penitentiary sys- 
tem is precisely analogous with that of such a machine) 
is beneficial to society. An individual citizen has a per- 
fect right to introduce labour-saving machinery, and 
however hard may be the effect temporarily on any num- 
ber of citizens, the good of the greatest number is im- 
mediately promoted, and eventually the good of all. But 
when a state government sets up such a labour-saving 
machine, it oppresses temporarily a class of citizens, for 
the immediate benefit of the rest, and though the whole 
community will be eventually benefitted, the state has 
obviously, to produce this result, violated the fundamental 
principle of equal rights. 



STATE PRISON LABOUR. 

[From the Evening Post of April 29, 1835.] 

The Albany Argus gives the following outline of the 
bill on the subject of state prison labour whichis now un- 
der discussion in the legislature of this state : 

« The bill reported by Mr. Wilkinson from the majority 
provides that the state prisons at Auburn and Mount 



WILLIAM LEGGKTT. 267 

Pleasant shall each be under the direction of five inspect- 
ors, three to be residents of those places respectively, 
who shall have the appointment of assistant keepers and 
all other powers now vested in them, except as otherwise 
provided by the bill. After prescribing the duties, com- 
pensation, &,c., of the inspectors, chaplains, assistant 
keepers, 6lc., the bill provides that no mechanical trade 
shall hereafter be taught to convicts in the state prisons, 
except for the making of those articles, the chief supply of 
which for the consumption of the country is imported from 
foreign countries — that the inspectors shall have power 
to employ artizans from abroad for the purpose of teaching 
new branches of business in the prisons which are not 
pursued in the state — that no contract for the services of 
the convicts shall be made for a longer period than six 
months, without the sanction of the inspectors at a regu- 
lar meeting, that two months' notice of the time and place 
of letting such contracts shall be published in the state 
paper and such other papers (not exceeding four) as the 
inspectors shall direct — the notice to specify the branch 
of business in which the convicts are to be employed and 
their number applied for, the length of time for which the 
contracts are to be made (which are not to exceed five 
years) ; such convicts only to be employed in such 
branches of business which chiefly supply domestic con- 
sumption, as had learned that particular trade before 
coming to the prison. Nothing in the act is to prevent 
the teaching of mechanical business in the prisons as far 
as may be necessary to fulfilling existing contracts ; but 
it is made the duty of the inspectors and agents to avail 
themselves, as fast as the interest of the prisons will per- 
mit, of every opportunity to change the present contracts, 
so as to make them conform to the principles of the act, 
and they are authorized to negotiate with the present 
contractors, for the abandonment of their contracts, at 



269 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

such times and on such terms as they may deem proper. 
It is also made their duty to cause the manufacture of 
silk goods, from cocoons, to be introduced, as soon as it 
can be conveniently done, and for that purpose, to pur- 
chase as well cocoons raised in the country, as the raw 
material imported, and to extend such business as fast as 
in their opinion, it can with a prospect of ultimate 
profit. The inspectors and agents of Mount Pleasant 
Prison are also directed as soon as practicable to cause so 
much of the state farm at Sing Sing, as they may think 
proper, to be planted with and applied to the raising of 
the white mulberry tree, and other approved varieties, to 
be by them gratuitously distributed or sold at moderate 
prices, for the production of cocoons and the manufac- 
ture of silk. The agents of both prisons are also di- 
rected to procure a supply of the white mulberry seed, 
which shall be furnished gratuitously to the keepers and 
superintendents of the several county poor houses, who 
shall apply for it, with the view of raising mulberry trees 
on the several poor house farms." 

No mechanical trades, according to this bill, are here- 
after to be taught the prisoners in our state prisons, ex- 
cept for the making of such ai tides as are chiefly im- 
ported from other countries. The ground on which a 
change in our penitentiary system is asked is, that it is 
unjust and inconsistent with the principle of equal rights 
that the State Government, which is established for the 
equal protection of the whole people, should become the 
competitor of any portion of the people in their lawful 
callings. The Government being established f»r the 
equal protection of all, it is proper that the necessary ex- 
penses of hat protection should be equally defrayed by 
all, in the proportion of their several means. When the 
expenses are defrayed from the profits of prison hibour, 
the burden manifestly falls most i eavily on those whom 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 269 

that labour competes with in their lawful callings. This 
would be true, if the State Government came into the 
competition only on equal terms ; since the excess of 
the supply over the demand would necessarily, according 
to the invariable operation of the laws of trade, occasion 
a diminution of price, and consequently of profit to the 
free citizen whose vocation was interfered with by this 
degrading rivalry. But it is true in a more striking 
manner when the State Government, entering into com- 
petition with any portion of its own citizens, employs 
facilities of which it enjoys the exclusive use. The state 
prison turned into a mechanical institute is, in effect, a 
labour-saving machine, for the labour costs nothing. 
All beyond the cost of raw materials is profit to 
the state. The state can therefore well afford to sell 
articles of prison manufacture at a price which would not 
supply the free mechanic with bread. A certain number 
of free citizens are thus necessarily driven from their 
callings, and obliged to find employment in others, or to 
depend on charity, public or private, for their support. 

We have admitted that though this is a grievous tem- 
porary evil to a few persons, it operates as a benefit to 
the community at large, and finally to the very calling 
which was at first interfered with. But the argument 
is that this eventual good is obtained by the previous 
violation of a fundamental principle of democratic govern- 
ment — the great principle of Equal Rights. The extent 
of the evil, be it greater or less, does not change the 
aspect of the question. If the equal rights of one citizen 
are trampled on by our state prison system, there is 
ground to require a reformation of it : if the profits of any 
class of mechanics or tradesmen are diminished, though 
but in the proportion of a mill on the dollar, or the hun- 
dred dollars, they have a right to demand redress. Nay, 
we go further : it not merely a right, but a duty ; for 
23* 



270 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

if you once admit the principle, who can fortell for what 
evils and abuses the " fatal precedent" may not plead 1 

We are of the number of those who believe that the 
practical evils of our penitentiary system are very incon- 
siderable and restricted, and the practical benefits great 
and widely diffused. Yet we are opposed to that system ; 
because it is founded on a violation of a fundamental 
principle of our Government. We do not perceive that 
the bill now before the legislature does away this objec- 
tion. It lessens the practical evil, but does not vary the 
principle. If the prisoners are to be turned to the pro- 
duction of articles chiefly imported from foreign coun- 
tries ; yet as long as some portion of those articles is 
made here, certain mechanic classes, however small, 
would experience injurious competition from a Govern- 
ment which they have a right to look to for protection, 
not for opposition. The rights of a small class of me- 
chanics are as dear to them as are those of the most nu- 
merous class to its members. But there is another class 
of persons besides mechanics, whose equal rights the pro- 
posed measure will invade. Those citizens whose capi- 
tal and enterprise are engaged in foreign commerce, im- 
porters of the articles which the state prisons are here- 
after to be set to work to manufacture, the retailers who 
deal with them, and all subsidiary callings, are to be de- 
ranged, to a greater or less degree, by the proposed bill. 
Here still, the erroneous principle, which is the only 
thing in the question worth contending about, is quite as 
manifest as ever. 

There is one thing quite certain in regard to this mat- 
ter : namely, that the bill now under discussion, cannot 
become a law without a majority of two-thirds of both 
houses should vote in its favour. Governor Marcy will 
veto it. On this point there is no room for doubt. We 
have before us a statement under his own hand tantamount 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 271 

to such a declaration. In a letter addressed to Mr. Ru- 
dolph Snyder, Chairman of the Corresponding Committee 
of the Convention of Mechanics w'dch met at Utica last 
autumn, Governor Marcy says, " That the labour of con- 
victs in our state prisons, as now conducted, is injurious 
to several branches of mechanical business, is generally 
conceded, and the only diversity of opinion on the sub- 
ject is as to the extent of the injury and the practicable 
means of removing it. The evil being admitted, it is the 
imperative duty of the legislature to apply a corrective, and 
1 shall exert my infiuence, in whatever situation I may be, 
in favour of all proper measures for the attainment of that 
end. That any class of citizens who yield obedience to the 
laws, and contribute to the support of government, should 
be injured by the means used for the punishment of male- 
factors, is manifestly unjust ; a system of prison discipline 
which necessarily produces such a result is clearly urong ; 
and a government which sustains it, neglects one of its 
obvious duties, the duty of protecting the equal rights of 
alir 

Those who are engaged in importing the articles which 
it is proposed that prison labour shall be employed in 
making hereafter, are a " class of citizens who yield obe- 
dience to the laws and contribute to support the govern- 
ment ;" for the state to enter into competition with them 
in their business and undersell them, thus either forcing 
them to seek some other employment for their capital, or 
to be content with diminished profits, would obviously be 
« to injure them by the means used for the punishment 
of malefactors ;" and as this is declared by Governor 
Marcy to be « manifestly unjust," it is plain that the bill 
must receive his veto. He is publicly pledged to this 
course, and Governor Marcy is not a man to violate a 
pledge or shrink from a duty. 



272 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

THE COURSE OF THE EVENING POST 

[From the Evening Post, May 18, 1835.] 
Saturday last was the semi-annual dividend day of 
this office. It* is presumed that a majority of the sub- 
scribers of the Evening Post feel sufficient interest in its 
prosperity to justify our adverting, for a single moment, 
and in the most general terms, to the private affairs of 
this office. It is with satisfaction, then, we have it in 
our power to state, that the business of our establishment, 
during the past six months, has been flourishing and pro- 
fitable, and was never more thoroughly and soundly pros- 
perous than at the present moment. The number of sub- 
scribers to our journal is larger than at any previous pe- 
riod ; the amount received for advertising is undiminish- 
ed ; and the total receipts of the establishment greater 
than they ever were before, 

This result is exceedingly gratifying to us for consid- 
erations of a higher kind than those which merely relate 
to the success of our private business. It furnishes us 
with an evidence of the public sentiment in relation to 
those cardinal principles of democratic government which 
this journal, for a long time past, has laboured zealously 
to propagate and defend. That evidence is in our fa- 
vour, and animates us to fresh exertions. We start 
afresh, then, from this resting-place on our editorial road, 
invigorated with renewed confidence of ultimately at- 
taining the goal for which we strive, the reward for which 
we toil, the victory for which we struggle — the establish- 
ment of the great principle of Equal Rights as, in all 
things, the perpetual guide and invariable rule of legisla- 
tion. 

It is now about two years since the Evening Post — 
having at length seen successfully accomplished one of 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 273 

the great objects for which it had long and perseveringly 
striven, namely, the principles of free-trade in respect of 
our foreign commerce — turned its attention to a hinder- 
ed subject, of equal magnitude, in our domestic policy, 
and began the struggle which it has ever since maintain- 
ed in favour of the principles of economic science, as they 
relate to the internal and local legislation of the country. 
We had long seen with the deepest regret that the demo- 
cracy, unmindful of the fundamental axiom of their po- 
litical faith, had adopted a system of laws, the inevitable 
tendency of which would be to build up privileged classes 
and depress the great body of the community. We saw 
that trade, not left in the slightest respect to the salutary 
operation of its own laws, had been tied up and hamper- 
ed in every limb and muscle by arbitrary and unjust stat- 
utes ; that these restrictions furnished employment for an 
almost innumerous army of office-holders ; and that the 
phalanx of placemen was yearly augmented by the mul- 
tiplication of unequal and oppressive restrictions and pro- 
hibitions on the body politic. We could not help seeing, 
also, that this multitude of unnecessary public offices, to 
be disposed by the Government, was exercising a most 
vitiating influence on politics, and was constantly de- 
grading, more and more, what should be a conflict of un- 
biassed opinion, into an angry warfare of heated and sel- 
fish partisans, struggling for place. 

But besides the various and almost countless restric- 
tions on trade, for the support of a useless army of public 
stipendiaries, we saw our State Governments vieing with 
each other in dispensing to favoured knots of citizens 
trading privileges and immunities which were withheld 
from the great body of the community. And to such an 
extent was this partial legislation carried, that in some 
nstances, a State Government, not content with giving 
to a particular set of men valuable exclusive privileges, 



274 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

to endure for a long term of years, also pledged the pro- 
perty of the whole people, as the security for funds which 
it raised, to lend again, on easy terms, to the favoured 
few it had already elevated into a privileged order. 
These things seemed to us to be so palpable a violation 
of the plainest principles of equal justice, that we felt im- 
peratively called upon to make them objects of attack. 

Of all the privileges which the States were lavishing on 
sets of men, however, those seemed the most dangerous 
which conferred banking powers ; authorized them to 
coin a worthless substitute for gold and silver ; to circu- 
late it as real money ; and thus enter into competition 
with the General Government of the United States, in 
one of the highest and most imporj:ant of its exclusive 
functions. There was no end to the evils and disorders 
which this daring violation of the fundamental principle 
of democratic doctrine was continually occasioning. It 
was placing the measure of value (the most important of 
all measures) in the hands of speculators, to be extended 
or contracted to answer their own selfish views or the 
suggestions of their folly. It was subjecting the commu- 
nity to continual fluctuations of prices, now raising every 
article to the extremest height of the scale, and now de- 
pressing it to the bottom. It was unsettling the founda- 
tions of private right, diversifying the time with seasons 
of preternatural prosperity and severe distress, shaking 
public faith, exciting a spirit of wild speculation, and 
demoralizing and vitiating the whole tone of popular sen- 
timent and character. It was every day adding to the 
wealth and power of the few by extortions wrung from 
the hard hands of toil ; and every day increasing the 
numbers and depressing the condition of the labouring 
poor. 

This was the state of things to reform which, after the 
completion of the tariff compromise, seemed to us an ob- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 275 

ject that demanded our most strenuous efforts. We have 
consequently sought to draw public attention to the fact 
that the great principle on which our whole system of 
government is founded, the principle of Equal Rights, 
has been grossly departed from. We have sought to show 
them that all legislative restrictions on trade operate as 
unjust and unequal taxes on the people, place dangerous 
powers in the hands of the Government, diminish the 
efficiency of popular suffrage, and render it more diffi- 
cult for popular sentiment to work salutary reforms. We 
have sought to illustrate the radical impropriety of all 
legislative grants of exclusive or partial privileges, and 
the peculiar impropriety and various evil consequences 
of exclusive banking privileges. We have striven to 
show that all the proper and legitimate ends of Govern- 
ment interference might easily be accomplished by gen- 
eral laws, of equal operation on all. In doing this, we 
necessarily aroused bitter and powerful hostility. We 
necessarily assailed the interests of the privileged orders, 
and endangered the schemes of those who were seeking 
privileges. We combated long rooted prejudices, and 
aroused selfish passions. In the midst of the clamour 
which our opinions provoked, and the misrepresentations 
with which they have been met, to find that our journal 
has not merely been sustained, but raised to a higher 
pitch of prosperity, is certainly a result calculated to 
afford us the liveliest pleasure, independent altogether of 
considerations of private gain. We look on it as a man- 
ifestation that the great body of the democracy are true 
to the fundamental principles of their political doctrine ; 
that they are opposed to all legislation which violates the 
equal rights of the community ; that they are enemies of 
those aristocratic institutions which bestow privileges on 
one portion of society that are withheld from the others, 



276 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

and tend gradually but surely to change the whole struc- 
ture of our system of Government. 

Animated anew by this gratifying assurance that the 
people approve the general course of our journal, we shall 
pursue with ardor the line we have marked out, and trust 
the day is not distant when the doctrines we maintain 
will become the governing principles of our party. 



CHARACTER OF ANDREW JACKSON 

[From the Evening Post, May 21, 1834.] 
The epithets, Usurper and Tyrant, have been freely 
bestowed upon the President of the United States, by 
grave Senators, in the course of debate. If he is a usur- 
per and a tyrant, it is right the people should be inform- 
ed of it ; though it may be questioned whether the angry 
use of these opprobrious terms in the Senate Chamber is 
the best method of communicating that information. 
These charges are of the most momentous import ; and 
if they be true, it must be easy to cite the acts which 
justify them. The history of the eventful life of Andrew 
Jackson, from his boyhood upwards — from the time 
when, at fourteen years of age, he was found battling 
with the enemies of his country, to the present hour, 
which sees him engaged in a not less important struggle, 
and with an equally dangerous foe — is known to his 
countrymen. His course has not been run in secret. 
His deeds have not been done by stealth. His acts, his 
motives, his ends, are all known : which one is it that 
stamps him a usurper and tyrant ? 

He has filled many important offices : he has been At- 
torney General of the south-western Territory — a mem- 
ber of the Convention that framed the Constitution of 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 277 

Tennessee — a Representative of that state in Congress, 
first in one house, and then in the other — a Judge on her 
supreme bench — a leader of the army of his country — 
and finally her Chief Magistrate, elected, and re-elected, 
by a most overwhelming majority of the free suffrages 
of his fellow citizens. In which one of all these situations 
have his acts proved him a usurper and a tyrant? 

Was he a usurper and tyrant when he fought the bat. 
ties of his country against the Indians on the south-west- 
ern frontier — that dark and perilous struggle, when, in 
addition to the efforts of a ferocious and formidable foe, 
he had to contend with famine, sickness, mutiny, and 
every ill than can beset a discontented and undisciplined 
army, which he conducted notwithstanding, with an un- 
daunted spirit, to a glorious result ? 

Was he a tyrant and usurper at Fort Strother, when, 
deserted by his famishing troops, he exclaimed, " If only 
two men will remain with me, I will never abandon this 
post!" Or afterwards, when his forces broke out into 
open mutiny, and moved off* in a body towards their homes, 
"he seized a musket, and resting it on the neck of his 
horse, (for he was disabled by a wound from the use of 
his left arm) he threw himself in front of the mutinous co- 
lumn, and declared that he would shoot the first man 
who should venture to advance ?" 

Was he a tyrant and usurper at New Orleans, when his 
military achievements furnished the incidents of one of 
the brightest pages in our history ? and where his hon- 
ourable and courteous conduct is attested in warm terms 
by his foes ? 

Was he a tyrant and usurper when, dragged before a 

court, and fined for those very acts which had secured 

the safety of New Orleans, he bowed with proud submis 

sion to the decree, and interposed his own influence — the 

only influence that could have availed — to repress the in- 
VoL. I.— 24 



278 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

dignation of his countrymen, and induce them to respect, 
as he did, the decisions of a competent legal tribunal, how- 
ever arbitrary and unjust ] 

Was he a tyrant and usurper in those acts of his ad- 
ministration which have resulted in such a successful 
and advantageous termination of the long pending nego- 
tiations between our Government and foreign powers ? 
Or, on his being chosen Chief Magistrate of the nation, 
was rt tyranny and usurpation lo recommend that the 
constitution should be so altered as to make any Presi- 
dent ineligible for more than one term, in order that there 
might be greater security that the measures of the exe- 
cutive would always be devised with single reference to 
the good of the People and his own permanent glory 1 

Was he a tyrant and usurper in recommending that 
an ample district of country in the far west should be 
given to the poor Indians who were discontented with 
their situation within the limits of Georgia ? Was he a 
tyrant and usurper in the noble stand which he took in 
preservation of the Union against the mad assaults of a 
faction at the South ? 

Was his refusal to sanction unconstitutional schemes 
of internal improvement usurpation and tyranny ? or his 
conciliatory recommendations with regard to the oppres- 
sive tariff ] What single act of General Jackson's, in 
short, deserves so foul a name ? 

Was the removal of Mr. Duane usurpation ? Surely 
not, for no one, at this time of day, will risk his reputa- 
tion by asserting that the President has not unlimited 
constitutional power of removal. Was the removal of 
the deposites by Mr. Duane's successor usurpation? 
Surely not, for the power was expressly reserved to him 
in the charter of the United States Bank. Where then, 
again we ask, is the evidence of General Jackson's tyran- 
ny and usurpation ? If he is a usurper, he is the strangest, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 279 

the most anomalous one that ever drew the breath of 
life. A usurper has hitherto been considered one who 
seizes that to which he has no right ; but if the term is to 
be apphed to General Jackson, it must undergo a wide 
change of meaning, since all his usurpations are com- 
mitted within the limits of the Constitution. We defy- 
any adversary of that noble and heroic patriot to cite a 
single act of his administration that violates, in the 
slightest degree, a single provision in the Constitution of 
his country. He is a usurper then of the power with 
which he was already clothed by the unbought suffrages 
of a nation of freemen — he seized what he already law- 
fully possessed — he is a tyrant, because he discharges 
those duties which the people imposed upon him when 
they raised him to the Chief Magistracy — he is a despot 
who shows his own indomitable will by scrupulously 
obeying the Constitution and the laws ! Well would it 
have been for mankind if all tyrants and usurpers had 
confined themselves within similar limits ! 

But let us look for a moment at the character of those 
who lavish these hard epithets on General Jackson. Is 
the Senate of the United States entirely above the liabi- 
lity to have these charges retorted upon itself ? Was it 
not a member of that body who declared that he never 
would consent to an adjournment till a national bank was 
established and the deposites restored 1 And is there not 
something that savours of tyranny and usurpation in this 
coercive threat, intended to control the action of a co- 
ordinate and independent department of the Govern- 
ment ? Was it not that body that rejected the nomina- 
tion of certain persons as directors to represent the gov- 
ernment in the board of the United States Bank, because, 
in pursuance of what they deemed their duty, they had 
reported the mal-practices and corruptions of that insti- 
tution to the Executive? And was there no tyranny 



280 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

and usurpation in this ? Again, did not the Senate of 
the United States, in defiance of the rights of the Chief 
Magistrate as secured by the Constitution, in violation 
of their own oaths to obey that instrument, and in mani- 
fest infringement of those inalienable rights which belong 
to every American citizen, condemn the President of the 
United States of high crimes and misdemeanors, without 
a trial, and without a hearing ? And when that aged 
and venerable man, whose whole life has been spent in 
the service of his country ; whose bosom is scarred with 
the wounds he has received in its defence ; who stands 
alone of all his family, having seen his brothers shed 
their lives for that freedom he has done so much to pre- 
serve, and his wife sink into the grave the mark of vile 
political slanderers — when that aged and venerable man, 
thus unjustly sentenced, and stung to the quick that his 
conduct should be thus maligned, respectfully asked that 
his solemn protest against the decision of the Senate 
might be entered on their journal along with the condem- 
nation, was he not refused — refused with added insult ? 
And was this conduct not usurpation and tyranny ? 

Verily, a factious Senate, the majority of which is com- 
posed of desperate political leaders, united by no common 
tie but that of hate to the war-worn hero who presides at 
the helm of state — governed by no common motive but 
indomitable ambition — verily, such a body is a fit source 
for such aspersions on the character of the man who has 
filled the measure of his country's glory. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT 281 



DESPOTISM OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

[From the Evening Post, May 22, 1834.] 
Hitherto despotism has assuredly been considered as 
the concentration of all power in one man, or in a few 
privileged persons, and its appropriate exercise the op- 
pression of the great majority of the people. But the 
Presidential Bank candidates in the Senate of the United 
States, and the bribed tools of the Bank who preside over 
the Bank presses, have lately discovered, or rather in- 
vented, an entire new species of despotism. They have 
found out that pure republican despotism consists in ad- 
ministering the Constitution and laws with an express 
reference to, and entirely for, the benefit of the people at 
large. 

If we examine the whole course of that extraordinary 
despot, the President of the United States, it will be 
found that the very essence of his usurpation consists in 
interpreting the Constitution, and administering the laws, 
for the benefit of the many instead of the few. This is 
the true character of his despotism, and for this is he de- 
nounced by those who wish to free the people from this 
original and extraordinary tyranny, by reversing the 
picture, and placing the rights and interest of the many 
at the mercy of the few. In order more clearly to exem- 
plify the character of General Jackson's despotism, we 
will pass in brief review the prominent acts of his ad- 
ministration. 

If we comprehend the nature and principles of a free 
government, it consists in the guaranty of EauAL 
Rights to all free citizens. We know of no other defi- 
nition of liberty than this. Liberty is, in short, nothing 
more than the total absence of all monopolies of all 
kinds, whether of rank, wealth, or privilege. When Gen- 
24* 



282 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

eral Jackson was elected by a large majority of the peo- 
ple of the United States to the first office in their gift, 
he found in successful op>:ration a system calculated, if 
not intended, to sap the whole fabric of equal rights, be« 
cause it consisted of little else than monopolies, eithet 
open and palpable, or in some flimsy disguise or other 
calculated to cheat the people into a quiet acquiescence. 

The first was an oppressive tariff', a system of bounties 
in disguise, under the operation of which the consumers 
of domestic manufactures were obliged to pay from twenty- 
five to two hundred per cent, more for certain indispen- 
sable articles of consumption than he would have paid 
had things been suffered to take their natural course. 
The consumers of an article always constitute a much 
greater number of the people than the manufacturers, 
simply because one man can supply the wants of many. 
Hence this bounty was a device to tax the many for the 
benefit of the few. It operated exclusively in favour of 
the smaller class, and exclusively against the most nu- 
merous. It was, therefore, not only destructive of the 
principle of Equal Rights, but it was a sacrifice of the 
rights of a great majority in behalf of a small minority. 

The first act of General Jackson was to set his face 
against this anti-republican principle of protecting one 
class of labour at the expense of the others. He made 
use of his personal and political influence to bring down 
the rate of duties on importations to their proper stand- 
ard, namely, the wants of the government, in which all 
were equally concerned; and that influence, aided by 
the good sense of the people, was on the point of being 
successful, when, by a juggle between Messrs, Clay and 
Calhoun, the measure was transferred to the Senate. 
That body passed a bill similar to one on the eve of pass- 
ing the House of Representatives, which was sent to the 
iattex -as an amendment to their own bill, and adopted 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 283 

with wonderful docility. The object of this most excel- 
lent legerdemain was to give to Messrs. Clay and Cal- 
houn the credit of an adjustment of the tariff, which but 
for General Jackson would have remained a subject of 
heart burning and contention, in all probability to this 
day. By this notorious assumption Mr. Clay sought to 
gain credit for his disinterestedly sacrificing his friends 
on the altar of Union, while Mr. Calhoun was delighted 
with so capital an excuse for postponing his plan of 
nullification to a more favourable opportunity. It was 
a cunning manoeuvre ; but, cunning is not wisdom, any 
more than paper money is gold. Notwithstanding the 
absurd pretensions of these two gentlemen to the honour 
of adjusting the tariff, there is probably not a rational 
man in the United States who is not satisfied that the 
real pacificator was GeneralJackson, and that Mr. Clay 
only assented to what he could not prevent. He found 
the current going strongly against him, and was nothino- 
more than honest King Log, floating with the tide. 

This was General Jackson's first act of despotism. 
He interfered to relieve the many from those burthens 
which had been imposed on them for the benefit of the 
few ; he restored, in this instance, the Equal Rights 
of all, and for this he is denounced a despot and usurper. 

When General Jackson came into ofiice he found 
another system in operation, calculated not only to un- 
dermine and destroy the principles and independence of 
the people, but to trench upon the sacred republican 
doctrine of EauAL Rights. We allude to Mr. Clay's 
other grand lever by the aid of which he hoped to raise 
his heavy momentum to the height of his lofty ambition 
— his system of national internal improvement. Besides 
the constitutional difficulty arising fi-om the necessary 
interference with state jurisdictions, there were other 
jpow.erful objections to tliis system. It placed the whole 



284 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

revenues of the people of the United States at the dispo- 
sal of Congress, for purposes of political influence. It 
enabled ambitious politicians to buy up a township with 
a new bridge ; a district with a road, and a state with a 
canal. It gave to the General Government an irresisti- 
ble power over the elections of the states, and constituted 
the very basis of consolidation. In addition to all this, 
it was a direct and palpable encroachment on the equal 
rights of the citizens. It was taxing one state for the 
exclusive benefit of another ; nay, it was diverting money 
contributed by one state to purposes injurious to the in- 
terests of that state. It was appropriating the funds 
contributed by New-York for the general benefit, to the 
Ohio and Chesapeake Canal, the successful completion 
of which it was boasted would be highly injurious to her 
own internal navigation. In short, it was a system of 
favouritism entirely destructive to Equal Rights, inas- 
much as it was entirely impossible that all should partake 
equally in its benefits, while all were taxed equally for its 
expenditures. 

To test the firmness of the old patriot, the great cham- 
pion of Equal Rights, a bill was concocted by the com- 
bined ingenuity of the advocates of internal improvement, 
combining such powerful temptations, and appealing to 
so many sectional interests, that it was hoped General 
Jackson either would not dare to interpose his constitu- 
tional prerogative to arrest its passage, or that if he did, 
the consequences would be fatal to his popularity. But the 
old patriot was not to be frightened from his duty, and be- 
sides has a generous confidence in the intelligence and 
integrity of his fellow-citizens. He knows by glorious 
experience that the true way to the affections and confi- 
dence of a free and enlightened people, is to stand forth 
in defence of the Equal Rights of all. He vetoed this 
great bribery bill and the people honoured his firmness, 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 285 

and sustained him in the great effort he had made in 
their behah". This is the second great usurpation of 
General Jackson, and the second great example of his 
despotism. He interposed to protect the people from a. 
system which afforded a pretext for applying the means 
of the many to the purposes of the few, and furnished 
almost unbounded resources for corrupting the people 
with their own money. 

We shall continue the history of the despotism of An- 
drew Jackson in our paper of to-morrow. 



DESPOTISM OF ANDREW JACKSON. 

[From the Evening Post, May 23, 1834.] 

The next text on which the Bank coalition have rung 
the changes of " tyranny," " despot," and " usurper," is 
the veto on Mr. Clay's bill for distributing the public 
lands among the respective states. The people should 
understand that these lands are their exclusive property. 
They contribute a general source of revenue common 
and equal to all. But the bill of Mr. Clay, no doubt for 
the purpose of raising the popularity of that permanent 
candidate for national honours in the west, established a 
distinction in favour of certain states, of either twelve or 
fifteen per cent. — we cannot just now be certain which — 
on the plea that a large portion of these lands were wiihin 
their limits, although they were the property of the people 
of the United States. 

General Jackson justly considered this preference of 
certain states over others as not only unconstitutional, 
but unjust, and for these and other cogent reasons, to 
which the coalition has never been able to fabricate an 
answer, declined to sanction the bill. Here, as in every 
other act of his administration, he stood forward the 



286 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

champion of the EaxJAL Rights of the people, in opposing 
an unequal distribution of their common property. Yet 
for this, among other acts equally in defence or vindica- 
tion of these rights it has been thundered forth to the people 
that he is a tyrant and usurper. 

But it is in relation to his course with regard to the 
Bank of the United States, that he appears most em- 
phatically as the champion of the Constitution and the 
Equal Rights of the people. Fully aware of the great 
truth, that monopolies, whether of rank or privilege, 
whether possessed by virtue of hereditary descent or con- 
ferred by legislative folly or legislative corruption, were 
the most sly and dangerous enemies to equal rights ever 
devised by the cunning of avarice or the wiles of ambi- 
tion, he saw in the vast accumulation of power in that 
institution, and its evident disposition to exercise, as well 
as perpetuate it, the elements of destruction to the free- 
dom of the people and the independence of their govern- 
ment. He, therefore, with the spirit and firmness be- 
coming his character and station as the ruler of a free 
people, determined to exercise his constitutional preroga- 
tive in arresting its usurpations, and preventing their be- 
ing perpetuated. 

The child, the champion, and the representative of the 
great democracy of the United States, he felt himself 
identified with their interests and feelings. He was one 
of themselves, and as such had long seen and felt the 
oppressions which a great concentrated money power, 
extending its influence, nay, its control, over the cur. 
rency, and consequently the prosperity of the country 
throughout every nook and corner of the land, had in- 
flicted or might inflict upon the people. He saw in the 
nature, and in the acts, of this enormous monopoly, an 
evident tendency, as well as intention, to subjugate the 
states and their government to its will ; and like himself. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 287 

and in conformity with the whole tenor of his life, he re- 
solved to risk his place, his popularity, his repose, in be- 
half of the EauAL Rights of the people. 

He saw, moreover, as every true democrat must see, 
who interprets the Constitution upon its true principles, 
that the creation of a Bank with the privilege of establish- 
ing its branches in every state, without their consent, 
was not delegated by the states to the general govern- 
ment ; and he saw that by one of the first declaratory 
amendments of the Constitution, that " The powers not 
delegated to the United States hy the Constitution^ nor pro- 
hibited to it by the states, are reserved to the states respect- 
ively, or to the people." 

But there is, unfortunately, a clause in the Constitu- 
tion, which is somewhat of the consistency of India rub- 
ber, and by proper application can be stretched so as to 
unite the opposite extremes of irreconcileable contradic- 
tions. It is somewhat like the old gentleman's will in the 
Tale of a Tub, about which Lord Peter, Martin and Jack 
disputed so learnedly, and which at one time was a loaf 
of brown bread, at another a shoulder of mutton. It 
admits of a wonderful latitude of construction, and an in- 
genious man can find no great difficulty in interpreting 
it to suit his own particular interests. We allude to the 
following, which will be found among the enumeration of 
the powers of Congress : 

" To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper 
for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and 
all other powers vested in the government of the United 
States, or in any department or officer thereof." 

The sticklers for state rights in the Convention which 
adopted the Constitution, and in the State Conventions 
to which it was referred for acceptance or rejection, did 
not much relish this saving clause. Tliey imagined they 
saw in it a sort of Pandora's box, which, if once fairly 



288 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

opened, would cast forth a legion of constructive powers 
and constructive usurpations. They thought they per- 
ceived in these two little words " necessary and pro- 
per," a degree of elasticity which might be expanded so 
as to comprehend almost any thing that a majority of 
Congress might choose to ascribe to them. They were, 
in our opinion, not much mistaken in their anticipations, 
although probably they scarcely dreamed that the con- 
structive ingenuity of the times would find that to be in- 
dispensably " necessary" which the country was enabled 
for many years to dispense with, during which time it 
enjoyed a degree of prosperity which excited the envy and 
admiration of the world ! 

However this may be, the people of the United States 
will do well to bear in mind, when they hear General 
Jackson denounced as a tyrant and usurper for the course 
he has pursued in relation to the Bank, that this institu- 
tion has no other legs in the Constitution to stand upon 
than those two little words " necessary and proper." If 
it is necessary and proper, then it may be re-chartered un- 
der the Constitution ; but it has no right to demand a re- 
charter. If it is not necessary and proper, then it ought 
never to have been chartered, and ought not to be con- 
tinued one moment longer than the faith of the nation is 
pledged. 

As this is one of those points which rests on the nice 
interpretation of words, it naturally depends for its de- 
cision on the general bias of the two parties in the con- 
troversy. The party attached by habit, education, inter- 
ests, or prejudice, to a consolidated or strong government, 
will interpret " necessary and proper" one way, and the 
party opposed to any accumulation of constructive pow- 
ers in the federal government, will interpret them the 
other way. General Hamilton, for example, considered 
a Bank of the United States " necessary and proper," 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 289 

while Mr. Jefferson believed, and has repeatedly denoun- 
ced it, to be the most dangerous infraction of the consti- 
tution ever attempted under the cloak of constructive 
power. Such has always been the opinion of the great 
leaders of the democracy of the United States, although 
some of them have yielded to the voice of a majority of 
Congress, mistaking it for that of the people. 

We have premised thus much in order to show that 
the course pursued by General Jackson, in regard to the 
Bank of the United States, is in perfect consonance with 
the known principles of the democrocy, the people of the 
United States. When the Democratic Party had the 
ascendency, they took the first opportunity that offered 
to put an end to the first Bank of the United States, and 
now they avail themselves of a similar occasion to give a 
like demonstration of their settled principles and policy. 
General Jackson would not have been re-elected by tha 
party, against all the corruptions of the Bank, combined 
with the whole force of all the disjointed, incongruous 
elements of opposition, after he had placed his Veto on 
its re-charter, had he not acted in this instance in strict 
conformity with the sentiments of a great majority of the 
democracy of the United States. Here as in every other 
act of his administration, they saw in him the great oppo- 
nent of monopolies, the stern, inflexible champion of 
EauAL Rights. 

With regard to the other alleged acts of despotism 
charged upon this true unwavering patriot, such as the 
removal of Mr. Duane from office, and the appointment 
of one of the very ablest and purest men of this country 
in his stead ; the subsequent removal of the deposiies 
from the Bank of the United States, and the protest 
against the ex-jparte condemnation of the « Independent 
A^ristocratic Body," more has already been said in his 
defence than such charges merited. We do not believe 
Vol. I.— 25 



290 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

the Senators making them believed one word they them- 
selves uttered on the subject, because, though tainted to 
the core by personal antipathies and personal ambition, 
they are men of too clear intellect, seriously to cherish 
such ideas of the constitution as they have lately put 
forth to the people. These speeches and denunciations, 
like those on the subject of universal distress and bank- 
ruptcy, were merely made for effect. They certainly 
could not believe that what the constitution expressly 
delegates was intended to be withheld ; that what was 
expressly conceded by the charter of the Bank of the 
United States was intended to be denied ; or that the 
exercise of a privilege inherent in human nature, to wit, 
that of self-defence, was an outrage on the privileges of 
the Senate. Real honest error may sometimes be com- 
bated successfully by argument ; but we know of no way 
of convincing a man who only affects to be in the wrong 
in order to deceive others, and shall therefore spare our- 
selves and our readers any further discussion with oppo- 
nents who are not in earnest, but who have so high an 
opinion of the sagacity of the people, that they think they 
can make them believe what they do not believe them- 

selves. 

It will be perceived from this brief analysis of the 
leading measures of General Jackson's administration, 
that all his " tyranny" has consisted in successfully in- 
terposing the Constitution of the United States in de- 
fence of the Eqttal Rights of the people ; and that all 
his " usurpations" have been confined to checking those 
of the advocates of consolidation, disunion, monopolies, 
and lastly a great consolidated moneyed aristocracy, 
equally dangerous to liberty from the power it legally 
possesses, and those it has usurped. Yet this is the man 
whom the usurpers themselves denounce as a usurper. 
This is the man against whom the concentrated venom 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 291 

of disappointed ambition and baffled avarice is vainly- 
striving to contend in the heads and hearts of the Ame- 
rican people, and to bury under a mass of wilful calum- 
nies. This is the very man whose whole soul is wound 
up to the great and glorious task of restoring the Equal 
Rights of his fellow-citizens, as they are guarantied by 
the letter and spirit of the constitution. May Providence 
send us a succession of such usurpers as Andrew Jack- 
son, and spare the people from such champions of liberty 
as Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, 
George Poindexter, and Nicholas Biddle ! 



[From the Evening Post, May 26, 1835.] 

THE 

AMERICAN INDEMNITY BILL PASSED 

By the French ChamherSy 

PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST. 

The Bill of Indemnity is at length passed, principal, 
interest, and all, in exact compliance with the Treaty ; 
but accompanied with a condition, which, if it be any 
thing more than mere French gasconading, puts the pros- 
pect of restitution to this country for the outrages long 
since committed on our commerce further off than ever. 
The President of the United States, it will be seen, is re- 
quired to make an apology to France for the terms of his 
last annual message, before we can be paid our just and 
too long deferred debt ! He is to offer a satisfactory ex- 
planation ! He is to refine away all that true republican 
grit which it seems made his communication to Conoress 
too rough for the delicate nerves of Frenchmen. He is 
to emasculate his proposition of reprisals of all its viruli ty, 
and to go on his kness and beg pardon for daring to in- 
timate that, if further insulted by France again refusing 



292 POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 

to perform her violated promise, it would become the duty 
of America to take the redress of her grievances into 
her own hands, and pay herself her admitted claim. 
This is the ground on which the French Government de- 
mands the explanation of the President of the United 
States, as the condition on which she will pay her too 
long deferred debt. If General Jackson complies with 
this condition, we have much mistaken the character 
and temper of that heroic man. And we have much mis- 
taken the spirit of the American people if they would not 
cast him off from their affections for so doing, deeply fix- 
ed as he is in the hearts of his countrymen. The very 
proposition by France is an additional insult, and com- 
pliance with it would be degradation far greater, than 
would have been, a year ago, the total remission of the 
debt due from that country. 

But there is not the slightest reason to apprehend that 
this insolent demand will in any degree be complied 
with. If the President makes any communication at all 
on the subject, it will be one which France may consider 
an apology or explanation, if she pleases, but which will 
receive a very contrary interpretation from all the rest of 
the world. The truth is no explanation is expected. 
The whole proposition is a mere last ineffectual splutter 
to turn attention from the sorry attitude in which the 
French Government has placed itself by its bad faith, and 
by lending a too credulous ear to the representations of 
M. Serrurijr and others, that the United States might be 
fobbed off, from time to time, as long as it suited the plea- 
sure of France to temporise. The energetic message of 
General Jackson rudely awakened that Government 
from its delusion. They suddenly found that they were 
dealing with an Administration which would " ask no- 
thing that was not clearly right, and submit to nothing 
that was wrong." They saw that this Administration 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 293 

possessed the unbounded confidence of a vast majority of 
the American people, and that its noble rule of action in 
its foreign relations met with their cordial approval. 
They saw that there was a fixed determination on the 
part of this Government and this people to obtain our just 
and acknowledged debt from France, " peaceably if we 
could, forcibly if we must." Seeing this, the tone of 
France was at once wonderfully lowered, and the silly 
measures of bravado that Government has adopted to 
hide its real sentiments and motives of action do but add 
to the ludicrousness of the unfortunate posture in which 
it has placed itself. The United States will get the in- 
demnity, principal and interest in full, according to the 
Treaty negotiated by Mr. Rives ; and France will get 
no apology — nothing bearing even such a remote resem- 
blance to one, that it can be palmed off* upon the world as 
such by all the vaunting and gasconading of sputtering 
Frenchmen. To such luckless straits a nation is reduc- 
ed that has not sense enough of right to redeem its faith, 
nor might enough to maintain its perfidy. 

The Bill of Indemnity it will be seen was passed by a 
vote of 289 to 137. 



CORPORATION PROPERTY. 

[From the Evening Post, June 3, 1835.] 
The property belonging to the corporation of this 
city is estimated, in the Message of the Mayor which we 
had the pleasure of presenting to our readers a few days 
since, at ten millions of dollars. Of the property which 
is valued at this sum, a very small portion is actually 
required for the purposes of government. A large part 
of it consists of town lots, wholly unproductive. Another 
part consists of lots and tenements leased or rented for a 
25* • 



294 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

trifling consideration. Tiiat part which is in the actual 
occupancy of the corporate authorities for pubhc uses, is 
comparatively small, and smaller still that part which is 
actually needed in the exercise of the legitimate func- 
tions of the government. 

That our municipal government should possess no pro- 
perty, except what is really required for the performance 
of its duties, seems to us so plain a proposition as scarcely 
to require an argument to support it. We elect our city 
authorities from year to year to supervise the affairs of 
the body politic, pass needful municipal regulations, en- 
force existing laws, and attend, generally, to the preser- 
vation of public order. Adequately to fulfil these trusts, 
a building set apart for the meetings of the city authori- 
ties is necessary. A place of detention for the city cri- 
minals is necessary, and, under the present system, a 
place for the city paupers. These, and a few other 
buildings, occupying grounds of a suitable location and 
extent, constitute all the real estate required for the due 
administration of the functions of our municipal govern- 
ment. If our authorities, then, purchase more property 
than this, they either waste the money of their constitu- 
ents, or buying it on credit, or paying for it with bor- 
rowed funds, they waste the money of posterity. 

The government of our city is nothing more nor less 
than a certain number of persons chosen from year to 
year, by the suffrages of a majority of the citizens, to 
attend to those affairs which belong to all in common, or, 
in other words, the affairs of the community. They re- 
present the aggregate will of the existing community in 
relation to those affairs ; and their functions, by the very 
tenure of their offices, are confined within the circle of the 
year. It is plain, then, viewing the subject on principles 
of abstract right, that a government so constituted, ought 
do nothing which would not be approved by those from 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 295 

whom it derives its powers. The accumulation of unne- 
cessary property, to the amount of miUions of dollars, can 
never have been intended by any considerable number of 
voters of this city, as a duty which the city government 
ought to perform ; and having accumulated it, to retain 
it seems equally averse to the plainest principles of sound 
policy and right. 

To whom does this property belong ? Not to the au- 
thorities of the city, surely, but to the citizens them- 
selves — to those who chose those authorities to manage 
their affairs. If it belongs to them, and government is 
not a permanent existence separate from the will of the 
people, but the mere breath of their nostrils, their mere 
representative, renewed at their pleasure from year to 
year, it must be obvious that there can be no good reason 
for having that property retained in the possession of the 
government. It would be much better in the possession 
of the people themselves, since every body knows that as 
a general and almost invariable rule, men attend to their 
private affairs much better than agents attend to their 
delegated trusts. 

Let no reader be startled at the idea we have here put 
forth, and suppose he sees in it the ghost of agrarianism, 
— ^that bugbear which has-been conjured with for ages to 
frighten grown-up children from asserting the dictates of 
common sense in relation to the affairs of government. 
We have no agrarian scheme in contemplation. We 
are not about to propose a division of public property, 
either according to the ratio of taxation, or equally by 
the poll list, or in any other objectionable mode. But 
our citizens are every year called upon to pay taxes. 
The last legislature passed a law authorizing our corpo- 
rate authorities to levy a tax greatly increased since last 
year. We have also our public debt, for which the pro- 
perty of our posterity is pledged, and this debt was lately 



296 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

swelled one million of dollars by money borrowed to be 
paid in 1860. Now it strikes us as somewhat unreason- 
able to call upon the citizens to pay taxes to defray the 
current expenses of the government, and to saddle poste- 
rity with an enormous debt, when the unnecessary and 
disposable public property now in the hands of our muni- 
cipal government would wipe off the whole amount of 
the debt which was contracted on the credit of posterity, 
and defray the current expenses of the city besides for 
several years to come. 

We would by no means dispose of our City Hall, or 
our Park, or our Battery, any more than we would dispose 
of Broaaway or the Bowery. These are for the public 
use, for their present, daily, and hourly use, in various re- 
spects. But in the public property which the Mayor 
estimates at an aggregate of ten millions of dollars there 
will be found much which is not necessary for the pur- 
poses of Government or the health and convenience of 
the people. All such we would sell, and apply the pro- 
ceeds to the liquidation of the public debt, and to the 
payment of those expenses for which taxes are now 
assessed. Let not the argument be used that this pro- 
perty will be far more valuable in a few years, and may 
then be disposed of to much greater advantage. If we 
admit the validity of this argument, it is one which may 
be urged to postpone the sale for half a century, and of 
what benefit would be the augmented amount, fifty years 
hence, to the present people, to whom the property in 
truth belongs ? Society is "daily, hourly, momently, 
changing its constituent individuals. The particles 
which compose the stream of life are continually passing 
away, to be succeeded by other particles, and the transi- 
tion of these human atoms is nowhere so rapid as in the 
whirlpool of a great city. Many of those whose votes 
elevated the present municipal officers to their places, 



WILL1A.M LEGGETT. 297 

will never cast a suffrage again — some have gone to other 
states, some to distant lands, some to that bourne from 
whence no traveller returns. But others will push 
into their places. The social tide will still rush on. 
The young man will pass his probationary period and 
acquire the rights of citizenship ; foreigners will be 
adopted ; brethren from other portions of the confederacy 
will take up their abode among us. No matter, there- 
fore, how rapidly increasing in value any portion of this 
surperfluous public property may be, we who own it now 
and who next year may own it no longer, have a right 
to demand that it should be disposed of for our benefit, 
and to liquidate those debts which we have no right to 
leave for posterity to pay. 

But we deny that there is any validity in this argu- 
ment founded on the conjectural or probable rise of price. 
If the property improves in price, we ask whether is it 
better that the increase should be in the hands of the 
government or of individual citizens ? Should the govern- 
ment continue to hold this property for years, through 
its annual successions, it is at last to be appropriated to 
some public purpose. If the property had been disposed 
of, its increased value would necessarily have been in the 
hands of citizens, whose capacity would in the same 
measure have been increased to contribute to the public 
expenses. The property of the citizens is at all times 
abundantly able to sustain any legitimate expenses of 
government, and all property, not required for such pur- 
poses, should remain in the people's own hands. 

There is one species of public property to which we 
have not adverted in this article, because it does not pro- 
bably enter into the Mayor's estimate, but which we 
could well v/ish were also disposed of by the public au- 
thorities, and suffered tc go into the hands of private 
citizens. We allude to the wharves, piers and public 



-298 



POLITICAL WRITINGS OP 



docks, with the exception of the slips at the end of streets. 
Those in our view ought to be as free as the streets 
themselves, and the rest ought to be left in private hands. 
We cannot undertake to argue this subject to-day ; but 
let those who are disposed to differ from us, reflect that 
we only propose to put the wharves on the same footing 
with houses and stores, and that the same competition, 
the same laws of supply and demand, which regulate the 
rent of the one description of property, would equally re- 
gulate the wharfage of the other. 



APOLOGY TO FRANCE. 

[Fro7n the Evening Post, June 16, 1835.] 
We copy with exceeding pleasure the following patri- 
otic remarks on the French question from the Pennsyl- 
vanian. They are of a similar tenor with those vv^hich 
we copied on Saturday from the Gloucester Democrat, 
It gives us great satisfaction to perceive that the sound 
democratic journals throughout the country are taking, 
as with one mind, the true American view of this subject. 
For our own part we say, Millions for defence, but 

NOT ONE WORD IN EXPLANATION. 

If Mr. Livingston, as we do not doubt, left instructions 
with Mr. Barton, the American Charge d^ Affaires in 
Paris, to follow him immediately to the United States, 
in the event of the bill of indemnity being passed by the 
Chamber of Peers as sent to that branch of the French 
legislature by the other Chamber, he acted, in our view, 
as became the representative of this Government, and es- 
tablished an additional claim to the respect of his coun- 
trymen. We do not see how, among men who have a 
sincere regard for the honour and dignity of their coun- 
try, there can be any difference of opinion as to the ques- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 299 

tion of the demanded explanation. If the bill should 
finally become a law, the very demand is an insult to us^ 
of a far more aggravated character than the pecuniary 
wrong of which we before complained. We before de- 
manded payment of a debt withheld from us by a simple 
refusal to perform a treaty. The payment was then 
withheld on the ground that the legislative branch of the 
French Government did not consider the amount claim- 
ed to be due, and maintained that the treaty was not 
binding until it should have received their sanction. But 
by the present law the amount claimed is acknowledged 
to be due to us ; yet compliance with the treaty is posi- 
tively forbidden unless the American Government shall 
in the first place make satisfactory explanations to heal 
the wounded honour of France. To state this in equiva- 
lent but briefer phrase, France refuses to pay us our 
debt, unless we in the first place beg her pardon for hav- 
ing dared to demand it. 

It does not aflTect the question in the slightest degree^ 
according to our judgment, to say that this explanation 
is a mere matter of form which two diplomatic agents 
may arrange in a friendly interview, and without the 
slightest difficulty. If it is reduced to a mere form, it is 
still a form degrading to us. If the explanation shall be 
acknowledged to lie in the bow with which the represen- 
tative of the American Government salutes the French 
Minister on entering his apartment, or in his shake of 
the hand ; if it is recognised in any act, word, or look, it 
is a compliance nevertheless with an insolent law — it is 
losing sight of our own honour to appease the wounded 
pride of vain-glorious France. Never be it said in our 
history, that to obtain the paltry sum of five millions of 
dollars, we consented to any stipulations inconsistent 
with the dignity of a nation of freemen. 

We have seen with lively regret, that some papers 



800 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

which profess to be democratic, take a contrary view of 
this subject, and urge the propriety of some explanation 
being made by the President to soothe the ruffled feelings 
of France, or in other words to coax the Frenchmen into 
good humour. The Albany Argus, followed as usual by 
its "gentle echo," but in fainter sounds of response than 
heretofore, seems to think that General Jackson might 
comply with the demand of France, by assuring her, 
either by the repetition of a passage of his last Message, or 
by words of equivalent import, that no threat or menace 
was intended. It would be the first instance in our na- 
tional experience of the Chief Magistrate of this great 
country having complied with the demand of a foreign 
Government to make any explanation of any message, 
which, in his Executive capacity, he had seen proper to 
communicate to a co-ordinate branch of the federal Gov- 
ernment. We fear it would not be the last. We fear 
we should be doomed to hear many iterations of the same 
insulting demand. " What do you mean by this, sir ? " 
and " What do you mean by that, sir ? " would be inter- 
rogatories to which, under the penalty of war, the Presi- 
dent of the United States would have to stand ever ready 
to answer. To avoid such a disagreeable liability, in- 
stead of free, ingenuous, and unreserved communications 
from the head of our Government to the national legisla- 
ture, in which all subjects of general interest are frankly 
and fully discussed, and the opinions of the Chief Magis- 
trate candidly stated, we should soon see short, vague, 
unsatisfactory addresses, like those of the King of Eng- 
land to Parliament, in which the few words that are em- 
ployed seem used rather to conceal than express the wri- 
ter's meaning. 

We may be wrong in the view we take of this subject, 
and if we are, we are very wrong, since it seems to us 
the question does not admit of doubt. It seems to us that 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 301 

France has no right to ask, much less demand, an expla- 
nation of the message, since it is a mere expression of 
the views of one branch of the Government to another, 
and not an act or expression of the Government at all. 
It seems to us that she has no need of an explanation, 
since the message, so far from being obscure, was so plain 
that he who runs might read it, and was as decorous and 
temperate, in all that related to France, as any document 
which ever recounted the wrongs which one nation had 
experienced from another, or proposed any mode of final 
redress. If we consider the case as between individuals 
under analogous circumstances, we shall clearly see the 
gross impropriety of yielding submission to the law of 
France, and entering into degrading explanations, in or- 
der that it may please his High Mightiness, the King of 
the French, to pay his debts. Let our readers suppose 
that a subscriber of this journal had put off our collector 
for twenty years by various excuses and evasions ; that 
he had then entered into a solemn covenant to pay us 
our money by a given time ; had subsequently violated 
that obligation, and after several additional delays, again 
agreed to pay it, but only on condition that we should 
first appease his wounded honour by making a satisfac- 
tory explanation — let our readers suppose such a case, 
and each ansv/er for himself what ought to be our reply. 
To make the case more analogous, it should be supposed 
that the debt, in this instance, had not been incurred by 
the mere accumulation of subscription dues, but had been 
created originally by a forcible entry into our office, and 
a wanton destruction or seizure of our property. 

With the Pennsylvanian, we entertain the utmost con- 
fidence that the President of the United States will act 
in the matter now about to come before him in the same 
spirit of lofty patriotism and independence which has 
distinguished him all his hfe long, and most conspicu. 
Vol. I.— 26 



S02 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

oiisly and gloriously in his illustrious administration of 
the American Government. We entertain no single 
misgiving of fear that he will ever do an act to sully the 
bright page which he has written in our country's his- 
tory. Age has not chilled his spirit, nor abated one jot 
the ardour of his patriotism. The honour of this people 
in his hands is safe, and will not be surrendered to the 
audacious demand of France. 

We have hopes, we confess, that the French Govern- 
ment will before this have come to their senses, and ex- 
punged the insolent condition from their law. Should it 
be otherwise, however, much as we should regret hostile 
measures on many accounts, there are paramount reasons 
why we should desire to see them promptly resorted to. 
For our own part, we could wish that war, immediate 
war, might be the alternative. We trust that we have 
not been vainly boasting all this while, that while we 
would ask nothing not clearly right, we would submit to 
nothing that is wrong. We trust there is spirit enough in 
the country yet to maintain our character, at whatever 
expense of treasure or of blood. Our fathers went to war 
for a three-penny tax on tea. Their sons have suffered 
a worse wrong. They have been smitten on the right 
cheek : will they turn the left also 1 



OUT OF DEBT. 

[From the Evening Post, June 20, 1835.] 
It is the peculiar boast of the people of the United 
States that the nation is now out of debt. We hear it 
repeated every day with an exultation which would be 
just, if the boast were true. But as it is not true, it may 
be worth while to apprise our fellow-citizens of the real 
state of the case. The People of the United States are 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 803 

not out of debt, and never will be, while the present 
system of banking and borrowing continues to subsist. 

The General Government it is certain owes nothing. 
Thanks to the policy of General Jackson, it has redeemed 
all its obligations. But what shall we say of the States 
individually ? Are they out of debt ? On the contrary, 
are they not, almost without exception, every day plung- 
ing deeper and deeper into the bottomless pit of unre- 
deemed and irredeemable obligation 1 Some are borrow- 
ing millions for public improvements ; others pledging 
the credit of the States, or in other words the property of 
the citizens, for millions ; and others are becoming sub- 
scribers to banks, and canals, and railroads, to the amount 
of millions more. Under this system, the individual 
States at this moment owe more money than did the 
United States, at the close of either of the wars of Inde- 
pendence. Yet we boast of being out of debt ! 

Who pay the piper for all this political and speculating 
dancing ? Who pay the interest by the sweat of their 
brow, and who must pay the principal, by the sweat of 
their brow, or transmit the everlasting burden from the 
backs of one generation to another ? The same people who 
boast of being out of debt. What difference, we would 
ask, is there between the debts we owe as citizens of the 
United States and citizens of a State ? Must we not 
equally labour and sweat under their weight ? Must we 
not pay them at once, or we and our posterity pay them 
ten times over in interest ? Unquestionably. Yet for 
all this, faster, ten times faster, are the legislatures of the 
states plunging the people over head and ears in debt, 
than the Federal Government is relieving them from 
their burdens. There is not a legislative session held in 
any state of the Union in which some new debt is not 
contracted, some new weight laid on the backs of the 
people and their posterity. The latter unhappily can 



304 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

say nothing against all this ; but we will tell the former, 
that if they do not say something to the purpose, and say 
it soon, never poor ass, not even the ass of all^asses, old 
England, was so laden with wealth, the burden of which 
he bears without sharing in the spoils, as will be the la- 
bouring classes of this country. Instead of leaving free- 
dom and competency to their posterity, they will leave 
them nothing but their debts to pay, and receive in re- 
turn nothing but curses. 

But the debts created by loans for public improvements 
and pledges of state credit, are not the only blessings to 
be conferred on posterity. There are in the United 
States upAvards of six hundred Banks at this moment 
with an issue of paper probably amounting to two hundred 
millions of paper money. Who pays the piper for this 
mode of dancing ? Who pays the expenses of banking 
houses, salaries of officers and other contingencies ? Who 
paid a million and a half for the marble palace in which 
the great paper Mammon is worshipped in Philadelphia ? 
And who will be obliged to pay all these through all time 
to come, so long as they exist and crush us to the earth ? 
The people ; the labouring classes of the United States, 
and their foredoomed posterity. 

Let us go on. Who has paid the penalty of all the 
millions which the failure of hiundreds of paper banks left 
unredeemed ? The people ; the labouring classes of these 
United States. And who is now actually responsible 
for the two hundred millions of paper money now circula- 
ting in every house, and from hand to hand in every nook 
and corrssr of the land? Out of whose pockets, out of 
the sweat of whose brow, come the dividends of these 
banks ; and whence will be derived the means of re- 
deeming these two hundred millions, if they are ever 
redeemed ? From the pockets of the people ; from the 
sweat of the labouring classes. And who will pay both 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 305 

interest and principal of these enormous issues of paper 
money, resting on paper promises ? We answer again, 
the labouring classes of the United States. If this pa- 
per is ever redeemed it must be by the profits of these 
institutions squeezed out of the People ; a^nd if it is not, 
the same People must pay the penalty, by losing the 
whole amount in circulation. It will die on their hands. 
Thus it will be seen, as clear as the light of day, that 
these two hundred millions of paper money operate as 
actual debts on the People of the United States. They 
pay the interest, and they must redeem the principal, if 
it is ever redeemed. Happy people ! to be so out of 
debt, and thrice happy posterity to inherit so many bless- 
ings ! 



EDWARD LIVINGSTON. 

{From the Evening Post, June 23, 1835.] 
The Constitution has at length arrived. We bid Mr. 
Livingston welcome back to that country, whose honour 
he has shown himself so ready and so able to maintain 
abroad. The attention of this community has been 
earnestly fixed upon Mr. Livingston through the whole 
course of the difficult and unpleasant controversy with 
France ; and the regard before entertained for him, as a 
worthy son of New-York, as a man whose distinguished 
talents had always been exerted to advance the great 
principles of democratic government, and whose whole 
life indeed had been passed in the discharge of various 
important public trusts, has been increased and strength- 
ened by the firm yet moderate, and dignified yet concilia- 
tory manner in which he has conducted himself through 
the responsible and delicate circumstances in which he 
has been placed. 
25* 



306 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

Mr. Livingston seertis truly to have adopted, as his 
rule of action, the noble sentiment of General Jackson, 
to ask nothing that is not clearly right, and submit to 
nothing that is wrong. He seems to have borne con- 
stantly in mind, too, that he was the representative of 
his country, and to have merged, on more than one 
irritating occasion, the feelings of the man in those which 
were proper to the nation. We have hence beheld him 
acting with the most temperate and lofty forbearance, in 
circumstances which were calculated to stir ordinary 
minds to violence, and by which there are few men, even 
of deliberate judgment, who would not have been urged 
into some hasty measure or expression of asperity. But 
Mr. Livingston kept his eyes steadily fixed on the real 
interest and dignity of his country, determined not to 
sacrifice, under the influence of any private motive, or by 
yielding to any natural suggestion of personal resent- 
ment, the slightest portion of that weight which the 
American cause possesses, as well by the moderation and 
calmness with which it has been urged through every 
stage of the protracted negotiation, as by the intrinsic 
justice of the original claim. 

We are sure that we but speak the universal senti- 
ment of the democracy of this community and of the 
country, when we express the warmest approbation of 
the course pursued by Mr. Livingston, while the minister 
of the American Government in France. He may rest 
assured that his countrymen have fully appreciated the 
embarrassing circumstances in which he has been placed ; 
that they have keenly felt the sa rcasms and contu- 
melious expressions which were aimed at him ; and have 
admired the equanimity with which he withstood the petty 
malice of gasconading assailants, whose dearest object 
would have been achieved, could they have disturbed 
that evenness and dignity which made their own vehe- 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 307 

mence and bravado so contemptible in the sight of na. 
tions. 

That the sentiments we have here expressed are enter- 
tained by the democracy of this metropolis we have good 
reason to know, and suitable measures were already on 
foot, before the Constitution arrived, to testify to Mr. 
Livingston, in an unequivocal manner, the respect and 
entire approbation which his conduct abroad has created. 
New-York, though the commercial centre of this great 
empire, and having consequently a deep stake in the 
preservation of amity with foreign nations, will be prompt 
to support the administration in any step proper to assert 
the honour of the country. New-York insists upon a 
strict, unconditional fulfilment of the French treaty, at 
all hazards, and will never consent that the Republic 
shall be degraded, through its Chief Magistrate, by yield- 
ing any explanations in compliance with the insolent de- 
mand of France. 

The elevated and firm, yet calm and assuasive conduct 
of Mr. Livingston at the French Court, with whatever 
satisfaction it has been viewed by our fellow-citizens, 
yet adds but one claim to the many he before possessed 
on their liveliest regard. A native of the Empire State ; 
a man whose talents, from an early period of his life for 
a long series of years, were constantly exerted to promote 
the best interest of this community ; who has served it, 
and served it faithfully, in various official capacities ; 
who has presided over this metropolis as its chief magis- 
trate, and represented it in Congress : such a man, re- 
turning to his birth-place from a foreign mission, which 
has been embarrassed with unusual difficulties, and con- 
ducted with unusual ability and dignity, has an irresisti- 
ble title to the most cordial reception. 

The names of few men are recorded in our history 
whose lives have been of more real service to the re- 



308 POLITICAL WRITITfGS OF 

public than that of Mr. Livingston. Identified from his 
youth upward with the party which professes the poUti- 
cal principles of Jefferson, the whole tenor of his public 
conduct has been to illustrate and advance those princi- 
ples. Early selected to represent this city in Congress, 
he was one of the sturdiest and ablest advocates of the 
doctrine of democratic equality, at a time when the oppo- 
site opinions were upheld by the most formidable array 
of talent which has ever contended, in this country, under 
the banner of aristocracy. The learning of Mr. Livings- 
ton, the force of his eloquence, and the comprehensive 
reach and unanswerable cogency of his writings, did 
much to accomplish the ultimate triumph of democratic 
principles, a result so auspicious to the cause of equal 
freedom. His patriotic efforts did not stop here ; but in 
the legislature of his adopted state, and in the celebrated 
" Code," for which she is indebted to the vast erudition, 
vigorous intellect, sound judgment, and fervent patriot- 
ism of that distinguished man, he still exerted all his pow- 
ers to promote the happiness of his countrymen and erect 
a strong foundation for their rights. In consonance 
with his whole career has been the course of Mr. Livings- 
ton as the diplomatic representative of his Government 
in France. After experiencing the contumelies of inso- 
lent Frenchmen for calmly but strenuously asserting the 
rights and honour of his country, he is once more among 
us, on that soil where he drew his first breath, and among 
that people for whom he exerted his earliest efforts. . It 
is for his countrymen to say what shall be his reception. 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 309 



THE O'CONNELL GUARDS. 

[From the Evening Post, June 25, 1835.] 

The incendiary papers continue their efforts to inflame 
the minds of such native citizens as they can influence 
against our citizens of Irish birth : 

" The O'Connell Guards. — No greater insult was 
ever offered the American People than the arrangements 
now being made for raising in this city an Ii'isJi regiment 
to be called the < O^Connell Guards.' Such a corps 
would soon attempt to enforce with the bayonet what too. 
many of the misguided and ignorant of the foreign voters 
already boast of — the complete subjection of the Native 
citizens to their dictation. We know Governor Marcy 
too well to believe it possible that he will sanction such 
an outrage upon society, notwithstanding its being got 
up under the auspices of that creature Cambreleng and 
his associates ; and trust this infamous proceeding is des- 
tined to recoil upon the unprincipled Party which origin- 
ated it." 

The first observation we have to make is to repeat, in 
the most earnest manner, the hope we have heretofore 
expressed that our fellow-citizens of Irish birth will con- 
tinue to exhibit, in the trying circumstances in which 
they are placed, that moderation and forbearance which 
distinguished their conduct when they were made the 
object of mob assaults in the spring of 18.34, and which 
has no less distinguished them in the recent disorders. 
Could they be excited, by the inflammatory paragraphs 
of those prints which are endeavouring to array the com- 



310 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

munity against them, to commit any act of violence — to 
become the aggressors in any tumultuary movement — a 
leading object of their unprincipled opponents would be 
accomplished ; and that single retaliatory act would be 
used against them with all the zeal and industry of the 
most bitter political hatred. Should they continue, on 
the other hand, to rely upon the civil authorities for pro- 
tection in their rights, the inflammatory arts of their op- 
ponents must react upon themselves. It is not possible 
that any considerable number of citizens can long be 
misled by the wicked efforts of those unprincipled news- 
papers which, by the most unfounded calumnies, and the 
most inflammatory appeals to the worst passions of their 
readers, have provoked this temporary ebullition of pop- 
ular feeling against the Irish. 

With regard to the pretended " insult offered to the 
American people" in the proposition to raise a regiment 
under the title of the O'Connell Guards, let any American 
citizen, of whatever lineage, examine the subject dis- 
passionately for a moment, and he will plainly see that 
the only insult offered to the community lies in the con- 
duct of the prints which have opposed the formation of 
this regiment, not in that of the authors of the undertak- 
ing. Our institutions must be frail or rotten indeed, if 
they stand in any danger from a militia regiment com- 
posed of citizens, no matter from what country they may 
have sprung. A truly intelligent mind can entertain no 
apprehensions of any undue or untoward influence be- 
ing exercised in this country by those who have come 
among us from foreign nations. Emigrants from every 
quarter of the globe, landing upon our shores, are assimi- 
lated by the principles of liberty, and form a part of one 
harmonious people, all equally interested in the preserva- 
tion of those institutions, which, like the dews of heaven, 
shed equal benefits upon all. If it is a quality inherent 



MAY 9 71QAQ 



WILLIAM LEGGETT. 811 

in the very nature of a free government thus to incline 
all hearts in its favour, with what double cordiality and de- 
votedness must the Irish emigrant feel enlisted in its 
support, with whom a love for liberty has been the main 
principle of action from the cradle, and to escape from 
political oppression his sole motive in abandoning the 
land of his birth, and making this the land of his adop- 
tion. The bayonets of Irish citizens will never be raised 
against the breasts of native Americans, unless, indeed, 
political fanaticism and persecution — shall have recourse 
to arms to effect their unhallowed purposes, and render 
an armed defence necessary. 

It will be well for our citizens, when they read the ar- 
ticles intended to excite in their minds feelings of jea- 
lousy and unkindness towards the Irish, to remember that 
there is no portion of our society more devotedly attach- 
ed to the principles of human liberty than those against 
whom it is now sought to direct popular hostility. In- 
deed, the true and only motive of these attempts lies in 
this very circumstance. Had a majority of the Irish 
citizens supported the United States Bank in its auda- 
cious war upon the Government and the rights of the peo- 
ple, the minions of the Bank, the purchased slaves who 
conduct the Courier and the Star, would never have 
sought to stir up the popular enmity against them, and 
make them the victims of riot and violence. 

That Mr. Cambreleng has had any thing to do, direct- 
ly or indirectly, with the proposed regiment of O'Connell 
Guards, is wholly untrue — a malicious fabrication of a 
print destitute of the principle of truth and of every sen- 
timent of honour. If it were otherwise, however, we do 
not know that he would be particularly obnoxious to cen- 
sure ; for we have not forgotten that a regiment of Irish 
citizens, under the title of '• the Irish Greens," long exist- 
ed in this city, were noted for the excellence of their dis- 



312 POLITICAL WRITINGS OF 

cipline, and the propriety of their conduct, and when the 
war with Great Britain broke out, volunteered their ser- 
vices to go upon the frontier, and demeaned themselves 
with the most distinguished gallantry, and the most ar- 
dent devotion to the best interests of their adopted coun- 
try. 









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